Severus Caravera: mercenary, warrior, hero
by TheFamousEccles
Summary: Severus Caravera is a mercenary who will take any contract. But when he takes a contract from the IRIS Network he is forced to reexamine his beliefs, especially when he meets Jade...
1. The Shadows of Dawn

BEYOND GOOD & EVIL 2

Jamie "Wolf" Driscoll

"The battle is won, but the war is far from over" the first words of the Alpha Sections Occupation Force as they stormed Hillys, mere months after the death's of their General and Priest. To live on Hillys now is to know the terror and oppression of a militaristic occupation. The Alphas kill all who stand in their way, the resistance is splintered, 2 million Hillyians are dead and the flagpoles of Hillys are one again flying the flag of the Alpha Sections. The Hillyians have been beaten into submission; the resistance is capable only of making futile and ineffective shows of defiance. To make matters worse, the people's hero, Jade has vanished and only she holds the key to finding the salvation of a universe… 

Chapter 1: The Shadows of Dawn

"Purpose defines us"-Agent Smith, The Matrix

SYSTEM 4-HILLYS-Seaview-Akuda Bar-26/7/2435

Sev sat in the near pitch-black shadows of the Akuda Bar's corner table covered in a thick brown cloak with a hood that obscured his entire face, save his mouth and neat, faint beard. Watching the crowd while sipping at his drink. Just then a short a guy, medium build, short black hair and green eyes walked and spoke to Mo, the enormous bull who ran the bar. After an inaudible conversation Mo pointed in Sev's direction and the young stranger walked over and sat down opposite Sev. He looked up at the stranger.

"What?" Sev asked in a growl tinged with an English accent, a relic of a refined past.

"You Sev?" Nino asked. '_This better be the guy everyone was talking about_' he thought.

"Who wants to know?" Sev replied he realized he'd given a yes answer without knowing.

"I hope you've been reading the local news, have you heard of a reporter by the name of Jade?" Nino asked, he hoped he could get this over with; this guy gave him the creeps.

"Yeah, what about it?" Sev asked, making a dismal failure of sounding nonchalant, he was intrigued as to where this was going.

"Well, she used to live in the lighthouse out there, until last night."

"What lighthouse?" Sev asked.

"Yeah, we did a flyover earlier today, its been blown to pieces and there are high level energy reading around the island. We don't know what they are but no one is willing to go have a look."

"And you want me to go instead." Sev said, finishing his latest employer's sentence.

"Here are some photos of the people you'll want to look for." Nino handed Sev some photos, Sev glanced at them, memorized each one and slipped them into his jacket pocket. Nino looked like he was trying to think of another subject to talk about.

"Now, about my payment." Sev prompted.

"Ah, yes about your payment, we can offer you 5K" Nino delivered his offer.

'_5K, I could fix Icarus with that, not bad, not bad at all_' Sev thought, "Okay, I'll do it, have the money ready when I return." Sev said '_If I return_' He had a bad feeling about this.

Nino stood up and went to walk up, as Sev stood up to his considerable height Nino remembered, "Where's your ship docked?" He asked

'Local Spaceport, bay 4"

"Right, well send him around, good luck."

"Send who around? Hey! Hey!"

"His name is Hub, ask him about Double H!"

Sev stood still, scowling at where Nino had just disappeared.

SEAVIEW SPACEPORT-Bay 4

Sev made it to the durasteel wall of bay 4 without incident; he looked up at the massive, brownish-yellow doors, towering over him. He located the console next to the door, laughably insignificant yet the only way to manipulate the giant doors. Sev punched in his code and stepped back. The massive doors slowly rumbled open.

"Hello, you Sev?" came a voice from right behind him. Sev stifled a yelp and spun around, a tall man was standing right behind him, Sev hadn't noticed him. The man was taller than Sev by a good portion, wearing Hillyan regular army armour. He had a large head, thick eyebrows, fairly short hair and green eyes. Sev's hand went straight to his sword's hilt, hidden by his cloak. "There's no need, I'm with Nino, name's Hub." Hub held out his gloved hand. Sev remained rigid, not moving, Hub lowered his hand and scratched the back of his neck.

"Your friend, he told me ask you about, Double H?" Sev inquired.

"Yeah, my old codename, I used it when I was working as an agent for Iris, it was…patrol!" Hub looked right, sure enough a trio of Alpha Section guards were marching their way down towards Bay 4.

"Move" Sev hissed at Hub, no time to double check this guy; he didn't want to get tangled up with Alphas. They walked quickly over to Sev's ship, Icarus, a Mercadi Stiletto class yacht, Sev usually stopped to admire his ship, a bullet like fuselage with two wide delta wings, green-on-black monochrome paint, slung under the wings were two long barreled G-565 autocannons the body terminated in a trio of large thruster tubes fed by twin Ruhr Mark VIIs, the whole thing was polished to shine bright enough to shave in. Sev quickly shoved Hub into the ship and closed the boarding ramp. Hub looked about in admiration, Sev moved past him to the cockpit, which sat in the transparisteel nose of the ship. It was an elaborate affair. One seat right at the front surrounded by a semicircle of monitors and three more chairs further back each of which having their own monitors. Sev quickly brought the ship online. "Strap in, I've got a loose AP valve somewhere so takeoffs are starting to get a little shaky." Sev shouted over the rumbling engines. Once he was satisfied that Hub was securely in place he pulled up ion the control pod and the yacht lifted lazily into the air, did a nose stand, spluttered and automatically righted itself. "See what I mean?" Sev pointed out "You can get out now." Hub did so and staggered over to the pilot's chair, looking a little green. "Where to?" Hub pointed out the island, Sev gave the yacht some throttle and pulled the ship into a shallow dive towards the island and the smoking ruins it played host to.

JUST OUTSIDE SEAVIEW-Lighthouse Island

Sev put the yacht down just outside the entrance to the island's cave. "We'll need to take the skimmer" Sev announced. The skimmer was Sev's other pride and joy, a Dyler GSX-350 turbobike; powered by twin turbofans on its underside the bike was a small version of a skybike. Sev and Hub jumped on, Hub with some difficulty due to his armour. Sev fired up the bike, which made a deep, animalistic rumbling, he hit a button on the wall and the lower doors of the yacht opened, dropping the bike into the ocean. Or rather dropping it onto the ocean, the bike skimmed the crests of the waves before rising about half a meter above the water. Sev pressed on the throttle; the bike tipped forward, much to Hub's discomfort, Sev guided the bike into the cave.

It was just like Hub remembered, only just. The dock was now strewn with wreckage, whoever had come here had torn the place apart, there were bits of machinery every where, the obvious marks of an attack. The mysterious Sev, still with his cloak on landed the turbobike on the jetty, blowing away small pieces of smashed machinery as the bike shuddered earth-wards. Hub leapt off and immediately started for the passageway up to the surface. Sev had just dismounted when the first laser bolt struck Hub square in the back.

"Look out!" Sev shouted, throwing of his cloak. Hub was surprised at how remarkably like Jade this young man looked, same vivid green eyes, same shoulder length hair, even similar jacket, though Sev was wearing a black sweatshirt that displayed his thick chest, cream trousers with neon purple lightning bolts and brown combat boots. Sev drew his weapon from its sheath on his back, a long, incredibly beautiful, ornately wrought sword. Hub checked out their attackers, they were small Alpha robots called Sentinels, roughly T shaped in appearance, they were simply a thin body with a laser dangling between two gas-turbine engines used mainly to police areas where the Alphas themselves wouldn't go. Sentinels monitored conversations and were programmed to kill anyone at the discretion of its onboard TES (**T**hreat. **E**valuation. **S**ystem). Which was what the Alphas claimed, though more accurately a Sentinel was also programmed to carry out random on-the-spot executions as a means of terrorizing the public. While these flying spies might have given ordinary people nightmares, the small drones' simple battle strategies and basic construction would be little challenge to two seasoned warriors. Hub drew his T-Hammer from its hidden compartment and joined Sev, who had already taken down several droids with his elegant, finely tuned weapon and style of combat.

Though Sev fought, his graceful style making mincemeat of the drones, his thoughts were elsewhere, back to the time when he had first held the very blade he used now, back to a time of innocence, before the whirlwind hand of fate touched him, a peaceful time on Furia

"_Focus young Sev" Father told me as I stood facing him in the courtyard of our manor, The long blade awkward and oversized in my nine-year-old hands. I strained and raised my guard, the better part of the long blade wavering dangerously in the air. My father came in and, using little more than a wooden stick, defeated my defenses and swiped my feet out from underneath me. "Stop fighting the weapon Sev. Let it become an extension of your arm, let your weapon become a part of you…"_

_I was fifteen, though I didn't know it then, the next five and a half years would play host to my darkest hour. Back then I was like all people my age, convinced of my own immortality. Five years in the Border Worlds soon had me seeing my life in a different life. I had stopped fighting my weapon. My appearance set the stage for my current one, my hair was long and I had the starting of a beard. My physique was in absolute top shape. I was dueling with my father, again out on the courtyard under the starry sky. We took a break and stared up at the stars "You'll be up there one day son" my father said "And I know you will make me both proud and humbled to have raised you". We stood side by side and watched a small green streak in the sky. At first I dismissed it as a ship, but as the streak became larger, more started to appear, Father was hustling me inside just as the teardrop shaped ball of green flame smashed into our courtyard with a blinding flash of light and a deafening blast…._

The laser bolt had streaked so close to Sev's eyes that it left smears on his vision. Sev shook his head to clear away the afterimage burned on his retina and found the drone that left him the souvenir, he gave the droid a souvenir of its own a X-shaped double slash across its body. Behind him Hub swatted the last drone into a wall where it exploded.

"Well, now we know what those energy signatures were" Hub observed, examining the destruction he and Sev had wrought on their attackers.

"Stay alert, there are probably more" Sev replied. But he was proved wrong. They exited the cave and crossed the short, devastated distance between the entrance to the hangar and the lighthouse. It was completely unrecognizable, what had once been a carpet of green grass was now a junkyard strewn with rubble and ruined machinery, most of which seemed to belong to the Alphas. In places the grass had been burned away, replaced with scorch marks from lasers and airship engines. Sev spotted a small, childlike hand underneath a girder. He rushed forward and pulled the girder away. He immediately wished he hadn't. Sev's breath caught in his throat he recoiled away from what he had, he couldn't breathe, at his feet was a little boy, about a dozen laser scorches burned into his chest, his hand still clutching a kitchen knife, in what had obviously been a futile attempt to defend his life.

"No, poor little Jarred, he was just starting to fit in" Hub commented Sev picked up the waver in his voice. The remark sounded detached but it wasn't hard to pick up the grief at this senseless act of violence. "How could they have killed him, he was only a…only a child" Hub asked, it was a question that could have no answer.

Sev climbed the stairs inside the lighthouse, he kicked a blackened piece of junk out of the way as he walked up, to consumed by shock to notice the small lens in the rubble until he was almost standing on it. Sev bent down and pulled away a slab of wood revealing, a camera. Sev picked it up and noticed that it had a note attached to it, it read

Whoever finds this,

produce of this film

it contains a photo of

an Mdisk hidden in the

room to your right,

find the Mdisk and play it

You will understand

-Jade

24/7/2435

Sev reread the message and then, as if on auto pilot went into the room indicated in the message, it took one look to figure that this was Jade's room it seemed the least damaged, though it was clear someone had been looking for something in it, the rooms contents were strewn every where on the floor and that person clearly hadn't found what they were looking for as they had smashed up the room in anger. Sev located what used to be a film-producing machine but was now a charred hulk perforated with laser blast marks. Then he saw a glint in the sunlight streaming in through the smashed window, he pulled the Mdisk out from under the cushion. Several photos came with it. Sev looked over the photos, they were not as he had hoped, evidence of who was responsible but a record of life at the lighthouse. The photos contained images of the inhabitants' lives before this disaster befell them, pictures of happier times. Sev looked through them until he found the last one, it was a sepia photo of Jade looking up at the camera from whatever she had been working on at the mahogany desk wearing an expression of half surprise-half amusement. Sev held the photo at eye level , then lowered it, the puzzle clicked into place. "Clever girl" Sev muttered, he walked over to the desk and looked at it, scratched onto the desk was a picture of a fish with a circle around it and a arrow pointing in the direction Sev had just come from. Sev looked carefully at the arrow, it was curved and attached to the circle '_like a fuse'_ the thought suddenly occurred, so Jade had left a trail, on that had led to what she wanted to be found, and then a little further, Sev smiled and walked out past the stained glass fish on the wall "Nice try" he said to the room. He collected the Mdisk from the couch and Hub on the way out "Lets go" he said.

SEAVIEW-Akuda Bar-Iris Den

Nino slid the Mdisk into the player; it clicked, whirred and began to play.

VIDEO RECORDING 20/7/2435

Jade stepped back from her camera and sat down. She sighed, pushed her hair back and then gave up attempting to put of the inevitable. "If you're watching this I hope you're not an Alpha. If your not, they're coming for me, I know it so this will probably be my last chance to record this before its too late, chances are they'll kill me." She straightened up and restarted, sounding more like the old Jade: tough and stubborn "Don't try to rescue me, what I have on this camera is worth more than my life, take it to the Galactic Council, give them the proof they need to deploy their armies against the Alphas. Find my camera and take it to the Council, its all that can be done to stop the Alphas and their DomZ masters." The recording crackled out and the image on screen was replaced with snow.

END VIDEO RECORDING 20/7/2435

"We've got to help her" an American voice said at once, Sev turned slowly to see that the voice belonged to a short, portly pig clad in a brown jacket, whit sweatshirt that did little to hide his great belly, blue jeans and a pair of odd looking boots. "Pey'j's the name, Ah'm Jade's uncle' Pey'j offered a three fingered hand for Sev, he shook it and returned to having his arms folded across his chest.

"Yeah, that's a great cause, Mr. Pey'j but it has two big problems with it."

"And they are?" Pey'j asked defensively, personally he couldn't see any problems with going to rescue Jade.

"One, we don't know where Jade is, or even if she's still alive. Frag, she could be in Andromeda" Sev rarely swore but when he did, it made up for the usual absence of colourful language, "Number two, even if we could find her the Alphas will have her locked down so tight a rat couldn't get with a parsec of her."

"With that I may be able to help" Nino announced to the group, he was sitting at a computer typing furiously, "I learned to hack over the past few months" he informed the group.

'_You've got to be kidding, they expect to mount a rescue based on the information provided by a poster boy who learned hacking within the space of several months?'_ Sev thought _'I'm collecting my check and getting out of here, suicide runs aren't I my contract…'_


	2. Rescue and Revelation

Chapter 2: Rescue and Revelation 

"Expect the worst, and you'll never be disappointed"-Murphy's Law

SYSTEM 4-Lanos's Fifth moon, Sahara-Basin spaceport 2/8/2165 

Several days later Sev descended the gangway from his ship and placed his first footprint on Sahara, the fifth moon of System 4's massive purple gas giant Lanos, Sev checked out his environs, like everything on Sahara, and every other desert world Sev had visited, there was not an inch of ground, machine, people or structure that was not covered in gritty, coarse sand. Everywhere machines covered in coarse weave rattled away, tended by spaceport crewmen. He was blasted with heat and dust as an old tug set down nearby behind him Pey'j and Hub walked down the gangway, their weapons displayed in plain sight, for Hub his T-Hammer was slung on his back, Pey'j's Barocco D-53 cutting hammer hanging in a sling at his waist, for Sev, he had discarded his cloak and his sword's hilt and gleamed in the sunlight as it hung from the strap attached to his nano-sheath they met between the two ships. Sev paid the dock master for a trio of security bots to guard his ship and a refuel, with that taken care of the three set of into the dusty streets for a guide to the surrounding area, known as the Badlands, and not without good cause…

SAHARA-Badlands-Five hundred metres from ruins at Call--3/8/2435

The old base at Call was in ruins, having been abandoned for years, left to the scavengers, junk merchants and desert elements it was not a pretty sight, there was not a single undamaged building, overall Sev, decided the term 'ruins' was fairly appropriate. It was in the middle of nowhere, days from any marked trade routes. So why was a massive black bunker sitting squat in the middle of it? The answer was fairly clear, the dome-shaped bunker was flying the Section Skull, the flag of the Alphas. It was here that Jade was being held '_Not for much longer'_ Sev reminded himself. He lowered his binoculars and started towards the camp, his companions in tow…

ALPHA SECTION BASE-Prisoner's barracks

Jade had heard the gunfire even in her isolation cell someone was here! She prayed it was to rescue her before the Alphas started killing the prisoners to prevent them talking as a lot of prisoners had overheard conversations between the guards. Right now they were all locked inside the prisoner barracks, a massive rectangular structure holding hundreds of bunk beds, Jade however was inside an isolation cell, cut off from the other prisoners. Conditions inside the barracks were best described as squalid, the barracks hadn't been cleaned since they were first built and that was the way the Alphas liked it, keeping the prisoners as downtrodden as possible, crush their will to fight. On some it had worked, there had been more than a hundred suicides in this hellhole. Jade had spent the last hour listening to the fighting, trying to find out whether the beatings and 'interrogations' had crushed her own will. For the past few months, that answer had been yes but now, with the hope of freedom she had found new strength and she felt some of her old stubbornness returning.

Another hour later and a muffled yell of "Fire in hole!" came through the durasteel door at the barracks entrance, five seconds later a powerful explosion from a D-12 heavy breaching charge blew the doors of their hinges and across the room, Jade readied her makeshift shiv made in secret during her imprisonment, she decided to find her Dai-jo staff later on, the guards kept all the prisoners belongings in the storage lockers somewhere nearby. As the smoke cleared a young man stepped through, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Jade behind him a pair of people Jade recognized better stepped into the barracks "Pey'j!" She yelled out, dashing forwards into her uncle's arms, the other person was Hub, who stood with a huge smile on his face "Hello Miss Jade" he said. She turned to the third person, a complete stranger who's appearance was almost like looking into a mirror for Jade minus being covered in blood.

"I take it your Jade" Sev growled, noting that she seemed rather pale, Sev noted that he was covered in blood, none of it was his. Jade nodded weakly. "Lets get out of here" HE said to her.

"What about the other prisoners?" Jade asked.

"Dead." Was all Sev said.

ALPHA SECTION BASE-Main gates

"Frag" Sev swore under his breath, the Alphas had brought in some reinforcements, a squad of Assault Alphas backed up by a four-legged, 15 foot tall walker. Sev noted that some Alphas were carrying O.I.C.W.s, Objective Individual Combat Weapons, high tech assault rifles which had fully integrated computer systems and two barrels, one firing high explosive grenades or bullets, the other firing basic rifle rounds at a fully automatic rate of fire (ROF). "Hmm, O.I.C.W.s, I've always wanted one." Sev remarked casually. He reached for his sword in its nano-sheath on his back and drew not only it but also Jade's Dai-jo staff.

"Hey, can I have that back?" Jade asked on seeing her prized weapon. Sev immediately handed her the staff. "Thanks".

"Let 'em have it!" Sev roared, charging forwards into a hail of gunfire behind him Jade, Hub and Pey'j charged forward. Sev crashed into the first Alpha, knocking the soldier of his feet, Sev impaled him on his sword and leapt to the next guard, he made his way through the guards towards the walker, when he reached it he scaled up its leg, used his sword to cut the armour of its actuator and stuffed a heavy breaching charge in. He set the timer for two seconds and leapt of just as the charge exploded throwing everyone around it to the ground. Sev recovered quickly, grabbed an O.I.C.W of the ground and fired a burst of bullets at a group of Alphas, what he didn't realize was that the gun was on grenade mode, the gun kicked back and lobbed a high explosive grenade at the pack, throwing the trio of Assault Alphas into the air. Sev smiled with grim satisfaction, clicked the rifle back to auto mode and open up into the pack of Alphas, felling another three. He held the O.I.C.W over his back, the nano-sheath immediately melded itself around the weapon, relieving Sev of its weight, he drew his sword again and bull-rushed the remaining guard only to have his target collapse to the ground, standing behind it was Jade, looking triumphant and wearing a grin of victory. "Don't get to cocky, we've got to get back to the port, then to Hillys and try to lay low there" He could have said something more accurate like 'try to keep you alive' but it seemed to pessimistic in the light of Jade's optimism and happiness at freedom. Instead he said, "Welcome back to freedom"…


	3. The Warrior's Code

Chapter 3: The Warrior's Code

"I see that the path I chose through the maze makes me who I am"-Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

SYTEM 4-Sahara-High Orbit-Onboard _Icarus_-3/8/2435 

"…Frag it! Listen to me I know we can't return to Hillys with her in tow, just get me a hyperspace vector to somewhere friendly to Iris we can take her!" Sev snapped at Nino over the vidcom "now" he added menacingly. Nino looked way for a minute at another console.

"Got it!" He said triumphantly "There's a small landing bay on planet Atlas in the Andromeda system, its unregistered and not on any maps so Iris use it for smuggling people and supplies into the hideout there, I'll e-mail you some maps of the Andromeda system, planet Atlas and Jurgen city. Vector is 44-32-1256 to 65-72-860, once you're there use he maps to locate the landing pad, Jade knows the Iris contact there so don't worry about IDing him. _'Lovely, we have to go to Atlas and meet another mystery Iris contact, last time I did that I got stuck with these two'_ Sev looked back down the cockpit at the trio sitting together talking to Jade, he took the time to examine her appearance more closely, she had large green eyes, shoulder-length black hair, green lipstick and had donned her usual gear, a white tank top, green jacket and jeans, and white trainers. He didn't know why but he felt protective of this woman, who was clearly capable of taking care of herself, she had been ready to gut him back in that prison. And yet… Sev shook his head to clear his mind of whatever he was thinking _'Snap out of it, you're a mercenary not some knight in shining armour, she's already got that Hub guy. Stop thinking about her and start thinking about getting your paycheck and getting yourself out of this mess' _Fortunately Sev had a chance to purge Jade from his mind, according to his computer they were almost at the jump vector "Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking, please find the nearest chair, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for hyperspace. When he was sure the whole team was firmly strapped into a chair he maneuvered _Icarus _around to the correct vector and hit the jump button. _Icarus _with its gleaming hull vectored towards the distant star of Andromeda and, with the sun at its back and the purple gas giant Lanos hanging lazily nearby jumped into hyperspace with a loud boom, leaving three long white vapour trails in its wake.

ANDROMEDA-Atlas-Inbound space lane-3/8/2435

_Icarus _came careening out of hyperspace, precisely, the computer informed its crew, where they wanted to be. The ship lost velocity faster than a falling brick, coming to a full stop, minus drift from solar winds within three seconds of leaving hyperspace and entering realspace. Sev looked out over the view from the cockpit and checked his co-ordinates again, they were exactly where they wanted to be, the hyperspace exit vector for planet Atlas. Unfortunately the exit vector charts didn't take into account the trio of Alpha Section police cruisers floating around the vector, one thought raced through his mind, unfortunately it wasn't particularly helpful _'Alpha cruisers! What the frag!_'Sev took one final look at the trio of bullet shaped Alpha cruisers with long downward sloping wings had surrounded his ship, as good as _Icarus _was, three cruisers had him sufficiently outgunned. Sev snarled at the cruisers "Nino!" he snarled at no one in particular, seeing as Nino wasn't present.

"I wasn't his fault Sev" Hub said consolingly "He must have assumed you knew about the garrison on Atlas.

"You don't assume anything when you're dealing intelligence Hub! You of all people should know that!" Sev replied.

"When you're finished arguing, you might want to answer that comms before they decide to blow us up" Pey'j said, smoothly inserting himself between the two.

Sev swung his chair around, put his headphones on and pressed the flashing reply button on his console.

"This is Alpha Section police cruiser _Indomitable_ to unidentified craft, you have fifteen seconds to transmit you're identity, license and registration and flightplan."

"This is personal yacht _Icarus _to police cruiser _Indomitable_. License is 2234667801009 and rego is 443556011, I'm on my way to Atlas with a shipment of power cores for a friend of mine who runs a junk dealership there, want me to call him?" That was the golden word; police hated dealing with small business owners, especially ones who were most likely involved in something that was technically illegal.

The Alpha on the other end of the comms channel sighed and said "Alright, proper procedure is that we check your contract and your hold but it's been a long day. So just move along and don't tell anyone I let you through or they'll have my ass."

"Right, pleasure dealing with you _Indomitable_, this is _Icarus _over and out." Sev cut the channel and let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, that had been tense his heart was hammering. He swung the yacht around to face Atlas and resisting the temptation to floor the throttle flew towards the looming city planet of atlas at the marked speed limit the whole way…

ATLAS, GIANT CITY PLANET-Iris landing pad-4/8/2435

Atlas was a gigantic Copernican planet, meaning it was rich in natural resources. All this wealth had led to huge amounts of construction on the formerly beautiful planet. Atlas was now covered in one un-ending city that covered every hectare of the surface. The only green to be found would be in hanging baskets and artificially made nature parks. The city was comprised of over forty discernable 'levels', each one another layer as the builders, lacking the ability to expand, instead went up building new levels on top of old ones and new additions to spacescrapers. In fact the highest buildings on Atlas, in the Upper elements were over 100 kilometers tall.

The secret Iris landing pad was well concealed underneath a giant exhaust fan, complete with steam. After confirming their identity with the suspicious sounding control officer Sev brought his yacht down for a smooth landing on the 120 foot round tarmac. There were already a pair of cargo skiffs being unloaded on the circular landing pad; the entire landing bay was cylindrical, with black wall broken only by vents and the enormous control room window. The pad was concrete and covered in boxes, a generator stood growling at one end while a pair of tanks sat at the other, their long pipes leaking fuel onto the already dirty pad. Sev landed and lowered the gangway, wincing at how long it would take to clean his ship after landing here. He grabbed his nano-sheath from its rack and checked that both his sword and newly acquired O.I.C.W were still in it, he slung the strap over his shoulder and walked down the ganway, Jade, Pey'j and Hub having already marched across the pad and were waiting at the door with 'lift' painted on it in peeling yellow letters. Sev joined them "This is the Iris base" he said, giving the dirty setup a dubious look.

"We'll since were terrorists we don't have much choice in real estate" a shark in grimy orange coveralls snarled at him.

"So who is it that you know here?" Sev asked Jade.

"I don't know who Nino was talking about, it could be anyone."

"Oh great, so you don't know who it is your friend sent us to meet and you're dragging me along for this?" Sev asked incredulously.

"Well it'll do you some good to think about someone other than yourself for" Jade replied calmly, with a trace of strength in it.

Sev didn't notice the warning "Oh, I don't 'think about anyone other than myself do I?' Frag and to think I agreed to do this for 5K!"

"Money and yourself, you're a typical mercenary that's all you care about!" Jade snapped, the air seeming to crackle with her energy, it was.

Sev stepped back, cowed as the life arrived he remained silent, obviously unwilling to risk another outburst from Jade, it was apparent that he had just acquired the slight fear of Jade everyone had, never argue with a woman, why hadn't he learned that yet? Stubbornness, Sev answered his own question. The lift shuddered to a halt at a grimy steel door marked 'Control' the four companions stepped through to meet a familiar face sitting in a chair surrounded by banks of consoles.

"Hahn!" Jade, Hub and Pey'j yelled in surprise. Hahn hadn't changed a bit in the few months since he disappeared. He still had the orange turtleneck sweater, was still wearing the friendly expression he always had and was still completely bald.

"Hello everyone" Hahn said, clearly just as happy to see his friends as they were to see him. He saw Sev standing in the shadow "Ah, you must be Mr. Caravera, the mercenary Nino told me about, he tight-beamed just after you left for Sahara." Hahn said as if it were common knowledge.

"_Caravera_?" Jade asked incredulously.

"What about it?" Sev replied in a just-watch-where-you're-going tone.

"Nothing" Jade said cheekily, causing Sev to scowl even more.

"Now, I have something you might want to see" Hahn paused, holding his hand to his ear "There's an urgent call for me from Hillys, I've got to answer it." With that Hahn bustled out, a moment later he reappeared and said "Pey'j they want to speak to you to."

"Alright, tell Iris Ah'll be there in a moment.

Ten minutes later Sev heard the sound of the skiff back in the docking bay take off and a new ship arrive, even muffled by the durasteel that both separated this room from the docking bay and covered the entire surface of Atlas, Sev had a faint sense of recognizing the sound. It took him a moment to place it, his suspicion was reinforced when he heard the sound of T-Hammers, a brief scuffle and a laser blast. Sev looked at the others, they all still remained unaware, and it was clear that only Sev had heard the sounds. "Hahn! That fraggin' human tricked us and I think Pey'j is in on the deal!". His companions didn't get a chance to reply with anything other than scathing looks as, at that moment the door blasted inwards, kicked clean of its runners by the power armoured boot of an Alpha Section Elite. The Alpha Elite was the most dangerous of all Alpha infantry, they were the most highly trained soldiers, heavily psycho-indoctrinated, given the best equipment and were the veterans of a hundred wars, the Alphas most trusted soldiers. All in all the Elites were more than a match for a mercenary, an ex-soldier and a reporter and they knew it. _'But there's one thing their not a match for' _Sev thought, it was time to reveal who he really was, no more hiding his past, no more running from it, no more fear "Do you really want to fight me?"

"What can you do pup?" The lead Elite growled.

"This" Sev replied, his appearance began to change, his skin slowly turned gold and his eyes began to glow a blue turquoise , slowly, he drew his sword from the nano-sheath, he calmly walked towards the lead Elite the shouts of warning of his allies and the jeers of his victims meaningless noise. Soon sound had no place at all as it faded from his existence, his vision tunneled and only his target was visible. Without warning he leapt silently over the first Alpha, dealing a deathblow to the neck going up and slicing his gas tank of as he landed, odd trails of an insubstantial red mist followed his every move as he decimated the Elites, striking down all but one in a single fell swoop. Then the dream ended, the world resumed its normal state, sound came flooding back into Sev's ears and his vision returned to normal. IT seemed however Murphy's Law was in effect and the sole survivor was carrying a permanent state energy shield and large double sided T-Hammer, this was clearly the heavy weapons man of the group and appeared to be the true leader, his enormous, eight foot suit indicated that he was of high rank, leaders get the best gear after all. This one soldier alone could best Sev Hub and Jade in a fight and there was no way to run, there were only one option: die fighting.

Sev stepped forward to die like he knew his father would have wanted him to, fighting to the last drop of blood in his body. It never came to that, a small gun mounted on the Elite's shoulder pad rolled forward and powered a dart into Sev's chest, he knew at once what the sudden paralytic feeling meant _'Tazer darts! So they mean to take us in as prisoners!' _the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was another squad of Elites piling in and the forms of Hub and Jade lying on the floor, then it all went black…

LOCATION UNKNOWN -Time, Date unknown

Sev regained a kind of foggy sense of existence; he knew instantly that he was being drugged and that he was securely strapped down to a surgical table by heavy leather straps. He overheard the conversation being carried out apparently next to his bed, his eyes still shut.

"…All the more reason to dispose of them all" the first voice said in a tired tone, this argument had obviously been going on for some time

"But this is a chance we will never have again!"

"The DomZ have plenty of Furion prisoners from when they attacked Furia."

'_Plenty of Furions, prisoners!'_

"Yes and they don't seem particularly willing to let them go, those Furions are like a banquet to them."

"I can always turn to General Kh…"

"Don't say his name!"

"Alright alright! Don't go off the deep end, we can still see what high command can do can't we?"

"The Alphas are a puppet show for the DomZ and High C are the main characters." The first voice replied cynically.

"You just watch what you say, better people than you have disappeared for saying things like that"

"Oh really, I'm not afraid of the Alphas, they need us too much, why without us the girl would be nothing but a trouble maker and they'd never get her to the DomZ, no my friend, job security is very good here"

"Oh that's what you think, but one day I'll wake up and have a new partner!"

"You sound li…"

Sev lost his grip on reality there and then, fading back into a haze and then into a deep, drug induced coma, what happened in the next few weeks Sev felt or sensed nothing of, but the project continued…


	4. Darkest Hour

Chapter 4:Darkest hour

"Wake up Mr.Freeman, wake up and smell the ashes"-The G-man, Half Life 2

ATLAS-Alpha Section Prison-The Pit-8/9/2435

The pair of Alphas marched along the thin walkway that surrounded The Pit, a giant, hollow cylindrical colossus who's walls were honeycombed with hundreds of small 12x12 foot cells. Rising through the center of The Pit was a giant spire with dozens of walkways leading out to the walls. The prison was different to the one on Sahara; it was dirtier and certainly more dangerous. One quick look over the railings and one saw the curving wall stretching down so far that it was impossible to see the floor several hundred meters down. The pair of guards were carrying a limp object, they opened a cell and tossed the body in it.

"You think he's dead?" The first Alpha asked.

"No just out to it" The other one replied "he'll wake up and he's in for a shock when he does"

The two Alphas marched away, their sadistic laughing echoing around the prison.

'_All things that begin, must end, your journey is at a turning point young Sev, remember these words: You are Furion, their meaning will become clear in time, then and only then will we meet…"_ Sev woke with a start. Breathing heavily he surveyed his surroundings. A prison, his cell was in the shape of a half cylinder, roughly twice his height in length and width. Sev got up cautiously and moved to the door to his cell. What he saw astounded him, Sev had heard rumours about The Pit last time he visited Atlas, but he never expected to see it. The massive hollow cylinder stretched up and down further than the eye could see, it was going to be a real pain to get out of here…

ALPHA SECTION PRISON-The Pit-Recreation Area-12/9/2435

Several days had passed since Sev's capture and he had got the

grip of prison life quickly. It was rough, violent and if you weren't

careful, short. He had already planned his breakout, using the other prisoners to begin a revolt and seize the prison; tonight was the time it would happen, Sev looked down at his tiny shiv a far cry from his sword but it would have to do until he got a better weapon. The guards were not Alpha Section soldiers, guarding prisoners was too trivial a task for them, instead the prison guards were simply basic grunts recruited with promises of glory and stuck on guard duty, armed with nothing but orange coveralls and shotguns. There were rumours of so-called 'elite guards' who had access to heavy weapons and better armour. Sev checked his watch, eleven, it was time. He looked up at the burly walrus across the dusty, octagonal yard on The Pit's floor and nodded. The walrus walked up to the nearest prisoner and dropped him with one swipe, in seconds the guards were down in the yard clubbing the walrus. This was Sev's cue, he dashed forward at the guards, drew his shiv and impaled one in the back, the guard dropped his gun and fell down Sev grabbed the shotgun and turned it one the guards all around him, before anyone knew what was happening the guards were dead and the alarms were sounding "Now!" Sev roared other prisoners raced about, some close enough to the dead guards to grab their weapons other drawing shivs and clubs made in secret. The pack raced toward the exit killing more guards along the way. At the exit they found a squad of guards set up behind a barricade. They surged forward as the guards opened fire with a mix of shotguns and rifles dropping several of the leaders in a hail of gunfire. The crowd overran them slicing and clubbing its way through the defense. Sev slowed to a halt and turned to the other prisoners "Get their weapons and ammo, anyone who doesn't have a gun carries ammo, the wounded will have to stay. They picked up several more guns along with retrieving the ones from the twenty dead prisoners the new gun wielding former prisoners now stood at the front of the pack. "Lets go" Sev ordered. Next stop was the lockers that held the prisoner's belongings but more importantly it was the home of a large room marked 'armoury'…

AIR VENTS

It had been a total disaster the guards had been waiting for them with elites and mounted machine guns. The prisoners had been cut down in droves, whoever survived the machine guns was torn apart by guards with military grade weapons, Sev had fought until he realized it was pointless, he had his own life to save he had dived into an air vent after stealing a new O.I.C.W from a guard and a belt of magazines. He now crouched in a small, gray vent identical to hundreds of others all over the prison, except for one thing, all vents had a small plaque on the wall at intervals of around 20 meters on which were written where the vent went, came from and where it branched off. This one was marked 'exhaust outlet 1152-337'. The only thing gained from the massacre was that Sev had been able to retrieve his belongings from the locker with his name on it. He had found his clothes, sword, nano-sheath and S.A.C in the locker and had put them on in the air vent. Sev crawled onward for what seemed like hours until he saw a tiny point of light ahead, he crawled his way towards it and found himself staring out at a typical alleyway, rows of overflowing bins and skips, rubbish on the ground and a fire escape, opposite. He kicked the grate off and took his first breath of the semi-fresh air of freedom. Around Sev were other vents with steam pouring out of them, other exhaust vents. Unbidden, one thought jumped into his head _'now, to rescue Jade: again'_…

ATLAS-Lower Elements-Street level-12/9/2435

A small figure raced through the dense forest of people, pushing his way through with surprising terror-driven strength. The figure squeezed out of the crowd and into an empty alleyway. The figure was fairly short, obviously just a child no more than 13. He ran down the alley and dived behind a large skip, he peeked back out, the trio of large black suited soldiers that had been chasing him barged onward, oblivious of the fact that they were no longer in pursuit of their intended victim. The small child was a goat, clad in a hastily made yellow prison uniform that had been covered up with a stolen jumper and trousers, it was the most outgoing of Jade's orphans, Fehn. He advanced back down the alley slowly, wary of any other pursuers that may be out there. Suddenly a hand with a grip like iron clenched down on his shoulder. He spun around, painfully twisting his pinned muscles. He stared up into a familiar face. "Jade!' He squealed, except it wasn't Jade, though the figure held a great resemblance to jade it was in actual fact a young man who stood there.

"Relax kid, I know Jade." Sev said in a consoling voice.

"Prove it! Who are you?" Fehn snapped.

"I'm an assassin sent to kill Jade…" Sev paused a minute, then threw back his head, now framed with long shaggy hair that fell onto his shoulders and let out a barking laugh. "Gotcha there kid. I'm a mercenary Iris employed me to be some sort of guardian for Jade. Look let me show you my contract. With that Sev pulled the Iris contract out of his S.A.C. Fehn scanned over it and, when convinced handed it back to Sev.

"We gotta rescue Jade and the others. I know where they are! Jade sent me out to find you." Fehn said.

"Me? Why me?" Sev asked, baffled by this, he and Jade had not parted in good company. She had accused him of thinking about nothing but himself, _'she was probably right' _Sev thought honestly.

"Leave that to me." With that agreed on the pair made their way back into the dense streets and, on Fehn's instructions made their way to a place even more ominously titled than The Pit, a place known as the Alpha Section PlanetOps building.

UPPER ELEMENTS-PlanetOps

After hiring a taxi to fly them to the Upper Elements of Atlas, with Sev posing grudgingly as Fehn's nanny the two gazed about in wonder. It had been five years since Sev had been in the company of such opulence, the Upper Elements was were the upper crust of Atlas society lived. It was the highest eight levels of the city that covered the planet. It was almost like home, except that home had rolling green plains, amazingly crystal clear rivers and snow capped, cloud shrouded mountains…

Sev shook his head to clear it of his nostalgic dreams of his home planet; it was from a past that was dead and gone, a future that burned with the ashes of Furia, a fire translated into his own heart, burned onto his very soul. Sev marched onward, now oblivious to the glittering of the magnificent structures, which shone as if they were made of gold. In the middle distance Sev's sharp eyesight picked out the enormous, sprawling building with that massive holographic title 'GOVERNMENT HOUSE'. He led Fehn towards it both keeping a wary eye on the guards around them, hopefully the news of their separate escapes hadn't reached the ears of these guards. Even a warrior as good as Sev wouldn't be able to fight of all these guards at once armed as they were. Sev's eye for weapons picked out ceremonial swords, quarterstaffs and halberds but he also noticed the on-ceremonial guards armed with the occasional O.I.C.W, he also picked up H&K MP-500 SMGs, GK-36 Battle rifles, SKS-100 Urban assault weapons and M-23 Urban assault weapons. Against that massed firepower Sev would stand little chance even without having to protect Fehn. Jade would kill him, if Fehn got hurt and that would be if the guards left anything. So Sev kept a low profile, moving with the flow of sightseers as they made their way toward the massive building. As Sev drew closer to the structure he began to see just how difficult it would be to get in. The crowds parted and Sev saw a pair of massive walkers flanking the Government House. The combat vehicles, 30 feet tall had four long, spindly spider-like legs that supported an upside-down hemispherical pod hanging between them. From the pod hanging on thin, highly flexible tubes were two autocannons and, Sev gasped in shock, a long black cylinder that could only be an anti-matter cannon. Along with the walkers were over forty guards plus sentry turrets, scanners and no doubt mines. Fortunately the answer to Sev's problem came several minutes later, with a rocket that slammed into one of the walkers and a cry of "Liberty or death!" a swarm of colourfully dressed people came pouring out of lifts and buildings, they opened fire on the guards using AKMS rifles, stolen H&K MP-500s,GK-36s and SDS 14 shotguns. The guards returned fire despite being caught out in the open, subjecting the resistance fighters to a deadly hail of crossfire from all sides. The resistance split up and took cover, as the boulevard became a battlezone. By now Sev noticed that he and Fehn were all alone, the sightseers and tourists having run to the nearest cover. Sev dashed over to a small knot of resistance fighters and joined them inside what turned out to be a court. He immediately encountered a small army's worth of guns aimed at him. Sev thought fast, if he didn't respond quickly they would kill him _'Safe and sound in its shell the precious pearl is the slave of the currents'_. The resistance fighters lowered their weapons and Sev realized that the he had spoken the words that had come into his mind.

"You know our password." A fighter with a cybernetic eye and arm said.

"Uh, yeah." Sev replied, "I'm a long time revolutionary." _'Idiot'_.

"Well that's good enough for me. You look well armed enough. We gotta take down those walkers or they'll cut us to pieces" Another fighter said, this one was cradling a shotgun.

Sev though quickly, small arms couldn't take down those walkers not even if the resistance had brought along any RPGs or AP rocket launchers. "Give me covering fire, make sure those guards keep their heads down, if the don't blow them off."

"What're you gonna do?" A third fighter asked.

"I'm going to get up inside one of those walkers and use it to toast the other one."

"You're fraggin crazy man." A shark fighter told him.

"Maybe but it's the only thing that's going to wreck that walker" Sev replied. Without another word the group rushed out to relay the orders to other fighters. Sev turned to Fehn "Fehn, I'm serious here. I want you to stay right here, don't move unless the building gets blown up. Stay here Fehn, I'll be back as soon as this is over." With that Sev dashed back out onto the streets just as the walkers joined the fight. Immediately chaos erupted as the resistance fighters desperately employed RPGs and Anti tank rifles in a futile attempt to stop the walkers. Sev watched as a trio of RPG rockets exploded harmlessly off the walker's armoured carapace. The walker turned, singled out its attackers and opened fire with its dangling cannons, the solid durasteel ground was ripped to shreds and the pocket of fighters died in a blaze of fire and autocannon shells. Sev heard their screams from where he was standing. It chilled him to the bone, Sev shook the thoughts from his mind _'focus on your goal'_ he told himself _'Hold on Jade, I'm coming.'_

'_Sev!'_

Sev nearly fell over from shock. He had just heard Jade's voice inside his mind, and his heart. He had heard of certain people being able to communicate on a telepathic level before but he never thought he'd see it, much less experience it.

'_Jade, is that you?'_

'_Who the frag d'you think it is, your grandma!'_

The sheer attitude in the reply conformed it _'Jade, its so good to hear your voice... Uhhh I mean its good to know your alive.'_

'_Right, now's not the time Sev'_

Jade sat alone on the bunk in her 12x12 foot cell, desperately trying to maintain the telepathic link.

'_What, Jade, 1 have to say this, I've fallen. Oh frag!_

The link was severed without warning, Jade felt a white hot pain in her gut, like a giant bombed had punched through her ribcage and exploded. She didn't know at the time but it was that pain that a victim of a 25mm HE autocannon shell felt when they where hit by one. Just like the shells being used by the walkers outside…

WALKER AT0056

Commander Dernud Lown watched the massacre through the cluster of glowing red photoreceptors on the walker's head. His walker was butchering the rebels, it had lumbered down the boulevard, chasing the fragmented remains of the rebel attack down the street, culling their numbers with long swathes of 25mm death and leaving blood smeared ruins behind it. The boulevard was now totally unrecognizable; every surface was covered with bullet holes, shell craters and smeared blood. At the remains of defensible positions were clusters of corpses riddled with bullet holes and melee weapon cuts. The streets and walls twisted sheets of pockmarked steel. And ahead more destruction lay in wait. Every time the walkers fired their explosive shells tore up huge chunks of metal leaving long jagged tears in the boulevard. Lown surveyed all this with satisfaction, he knew this might be what got him promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and it would be a desk job, no more butchering pathetic rebels and innocent bystanders from the safety of his giant machine. But it would be a nice, relaxing job after his many years of active service. Lown was not an old man, just into his early forties and only staring to go grey. He had a weathered, lined face that smiled only when he could see his enemies crushed beneath the long, stilt like legs of his machine. Lown had steel gray eyes that matched his icy soul, a military standard haircut and a goatee. He was wearing a standard blue uniform with his name, rank and medal representatives sown on to it. On each shoulder was a circular patch with '431st Armoured Division' and a picture of a hover tank on it. Lown might have been an exemplary soldier, as his medal representatives showed, but at the moment he was too focused on the task at hand to notice the small figure scaling his walker's leg.

Sev flopped onto the walker's body. The climb had exhausted him, he had been forced to drag himself up 30 feet of smooth steel and the swing across to the body. He lay there for a moment, catching his breath and then started crawling across the swaying carapace of the giant machine. Sev had never realized just how loud those twin autocannons were. The deafening sound gave him extra incentive to get inside. He found a small hatch and prized it open with his sword, he lowered himself into the walker and dropped down smack in the center of the walker's cockpit. Sev made a quick head count, two pilots and a commander all staring at him with a mixture of shock and mild fear. "Ello guv'nor" Sev said in his best accent. It was the last thing Lown ever heard. Sev impaled the cold-hearted commander on his sword, drew it out and delivered the same treatment to the pilots. In the blink of an eye, the walker was his. Sev kicked Lown's body out of the way and sat down at the commander's chair. He jimmied a plate and set to work rewiring the controls. Predictably.

"Welcome New User, you have the con." Said the impassive computer voice.

"excellent." Sev said to himself. He reached out and took control of the walker, bringing it around and lining up the other walker. He activated the anti-matter cannon.

"Warning, friendly in the line of fire."

"Override" Sev ordered.

"Order accepted, powering anti-matter cannon."

Sev lined up the other walker and pressed the firing stud. A long beam of purple energy lanced out of the barrel and slammed into the target walker, vapourizing a circular hole through the whole body. The walker staggered sideways from the force of the blast and collapsed into a building. Sev then turned the autocannons on the soldiers flocking around his walkers feet. Within 30 seconds it was a complete rout. The few remaining soldiers had gone into hiding and the ragged remains of the resistance attack force stood clustered around the base of the walker, cheering at their victory. Sev managed to operate the grav-lift in the walker to take him down to ground level. There he was met by swarms of rebels who hugged him, thumped him on the back or shook his hand. One young female human even came up to him and kissed him on the cheek. Sev blushed, smiled and asked for whoever was in charge.

"I'm still here," the rebel he had spoken to earlier said, grinning from ear to ear "This is a great day for us and you made it happen."

"Were still not finished." Sev replied. He was about to continue when something small and furry attached itself to his leg. Sev looked down to see Fehn clinging tightly to his leg. Sev pulled him off and put Fehn up on his shoulders where he could see better and wouldn't get stood on.

"You did it Sev you did it!" Fehn yelled in his ear

"I know, now we can rescue Jade"

"It won't be easy. My people are exhausted we need to rest before we bust in." The rebel commander informed Sev.

"I know, but Jade's in there somewhere and she needs me, I know, I can feel it…"

The rebels rested for an hour before moving in. Sev spearheaded the assault, cutting down the few remaining guards with ease. The rebels encountered little resistance, most of the guards having been sent outside during the earlier battle. It wasn't long before they found what Sev was looking for.

Sev stood outside the massive durasteel double doors leaning against the wall next to them, a squad of rebels at his back. He summoned a small block of door breaching explosive out of his S.A.C and tossed it across to the rebel on the other door. Then he got one for himself. As one they set, armed and activated the charges. 5..4..3..2..1..the charges went off, forcing the doors to swing open to reveal the Alpha Section PlanetOps, Sev and the rebels gasped in amazement. What had seemed but a simple room was really the gateway to a massive durasteel cave which itself held a sprawling framework city like a scale model of Atlas itself. Their current room was like a massive lobby, which led to a large landing bay full of small grav-sleds of several varieties. It was several full seconds before a furious storm of gunfire broke out as the rebels and Alpha Section gunners vied for control of the lobby. The rebels had little cover and so improvised, going prone behind the corpse of a comrade and hiding behind the pillars saved the lives of those who had not been cut down in the initial trade off. Sev quickly advanced behind the pillars, sword in one hand Alliant/H&K M-29 SABR/O.I.C.W in the other despite its weight. He snuck up on an Alpha position as the guards traded fire with the rebels. He raked the group with 5.56mm rounds and dived at the survivors with his sword outstretched. Sev hacked through the group and immediately moved onto a pair of Alphas manning an -540 SAW he sliced one in half, ducked the others swing and brought his sword up underneath the guards armour lifting him off the ground, Sev dropped the body off his sword just as the gunfire ceased. IT seemed that the rebels had done most of the work.

"All right people find a grav-sled and start freeing the prisoners. Teams nine through twenty set up a perimeter on the shortest route back to HQ take the prisoners there in small groups. Teams 21 through 30 sweep the surrounding areas, try and find someone important looking and see what info you can get them to cough up. Everyone else start work on getting those prisoners out." A chorus of enthusiastic 'yes sirs!' met the resistance commander's orders as team captains relayed orders for their men to fall out and begin work. A team of rebels broke into the lobby's office and immediately sat themselves down at the consoles, filling up the entire room; together they worked to start opening cages and bringing systems on-line.

Sev wasn't one to be distracted. HE grabbed a two-man grav-sled and flew to the back of the chasm city. There was a small tower with its own landing pad. Sev put down on it after reading the massive sign which said 'SPECIAL PRISONERS UNIT-NO PERSONEL UNDER LEVEL 5 CLEARANCE' _'This is a as good a bet as any to find Jade and her friends, I'm sure the Alphas would consider her a 'special prisoner' time to get to work'_. Sev marched through the doors. This place seemed strangely empty; he hadn't even seen a servitor bot. IT was like everyone packed up and left when they heard that the rebels had bested the exterior guards and by the look of the place, that seemed to be what had happened. Sev found the brig after a dew minutes of searching, still not seeing a single guard or worker or robot. He pressed the button to open the door, it slid open easily they hadn't even locked the doors. Inside was a set of 12x12 foot cells each one covered with an energy barrier.

"Sev!" Sev heard the shout and rushed to the cell, Jade was standing at the barrier looking worried. "Sev they took Pey'j and Hub somewhere, I don't know where they are." Jade's large green eyes were filled with worry and sadness, Sev was surprised that she hadn't broken down yet.

"Don't worry." He reassured her, "If they're out there we'll find them. Lets get you out of here first." With that Sev hit the release button on the barriers control panel, the barrier shimmered and vanished. As soon as it was down Jade rushed out and flung her arms around Sev's neck, clinging to him tightly like a young child.

"Sev they've taken them, Pey'j, the kids, Hub, all of them. They took them somewhere! They said they were taking them somewhere I'd never find them, if they survived, their words exactly! Sev, I'm afraid that they'll die, I could never forgive myself if any of the kids came to harm!" Jade gushed out, getting all that weight of her shoulders, even with all her strength, even she had her limits of how much she could take and she had gone way past them.

Sev put his arms around her shoulders. "Relax Jade," he said softly, despite still being slightly surprised at the sudden outburst. "C'mon he" said gently prizing her of. He held her by her shoulders and said "I promise Jade, wherever they are we'll find, whatever it takes." Jade leaned in closer to him stretching up to reach, Sev looked down at her. Just at that moment Sev's S.A.C beeped, startling both and ruining the moment, Sev detached his earpiece "Go ahead" he said, thoroughly annoyed at whoever had called at that precise moment.

"We're nearly done here, come back with whoever you find."

"Right.' Sev said, trying to maintain a level voice, with one last glance at a thoroughly embarrassed looking Jade he set off for the hangar.

After another half hour the majority of the prisoners were well on their way to rebel HQ and the stream had slowed to a trickle when the hologram suddenly materialized in the middle of the room.

"Ah, resistance members. You know who I am; you all thought I was dead didn't you. You were wrong! AHAHAHA! You might have won this small victory but it won't change a thing, Hillys is in the middle of a civil war!" Said the sinister figure. Sev took down details in his mind, very large, two blue stripes on his cheeks, Alpha Section armour and a nametag that read…General Kheck. The hologram vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

A storm of protests burst out immediately from the rebels and former prisoners

"No it can't be!"

"He died!"

"I don't believe!"

"This can't be happening"

"I saw him die!" Jade shouted, startling Sev and a pair of nearby rebels.

"Then what's he doing talking to us now?" Sev asked, it was the first time the two had spoken since the prison barracks; they had carefully avoided eye contact after ever since arriving back at the lobby. No more time now for being shy, especially with this new supposedly resurrected foe on the scene. "Who is he?" Sev asked Jade.

"He was the leader of the Alphas on Hillys, way back when before all this started. I saw him near his moon base not a few months ago.

Dead or not, Sev could feel that this guy was trouble. Something told him they needed to get back to Hillys right away. Though he wasn't sure whether that was his feelings or Jade's, the telepathic link seemed to have strengthened and now he was picking up small clues about Jade's feelings. Confusion, fear for her family and friends, exhaustion, anger at the Alphas, but the one thing that had been nagging him constantly he had been sensing ever since they met: love, for someone nearby. He tried to banish any thoughts of it being him with little success _'Stop daydreaming and get on with the job. I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm not working for money now. It's a greater cause I have been fighting, for what I believe is right. And for this…'_

As luck would have it Sev's ship _Icarus _was being held in the warehouses at the Government House. Sev and Jade climbed aboard for the trip to Jade's war-torn home planet.


	5. War Zone

Chapter 5: War zone

"Though stormed with shot and shell, bravely they charged, into the mouth of the Devil, into the maw of Hell"-Lonard Dawes, _Dark Empire's fall_

HILLYS-Seaview airspace-Night 13/9/2435

Sev brought the yacht down through the clouds the ships hulls shimmered as the sunlight slid across its transparent hull. Sev had engaged the cloaking system; it was eating up power at a phenomenal rate, giving Sev just another few hours of flight time before the batteries went dead. He looked back at Jade, who had changed out of her prison uniform into her traditional clothes. It was immediately clear that two stints at Alpha Section prisons had done little for her looks, she had seemed downcast, as if her fighting spirit had been crushed. Understandable given Alpha Section 'hospitality' but now Sev could se that she was raring to fight now. Amazing what a good meal and a long sleep could do for someone. Jade's hair was now as long as Sev's, hanging over her shoulders with a locks framing her green eyes in a brushed back style that looked just plain good. Sev had to admit that jade had made quite the recovery, only a day after her second time in prison and she was already back to having simple, down to earth good looks.

'_Keep you eyes on the sky' _the thought came from nowhere but Jade had just a hint of a smile. For now Sev returned his attention to the view in front of him just in time to see one of the most heart breaking things in his life.

Seaview, the city that Jade had long considered part of her home was a vibrant, beautiful town. The wide canal that cut through the center of the island it was built upon played host to a multitude of hover cars, small boats and hovercraft of all shapes and sizes. The pedestrian district was home to most of the city's population. A town within a town it was Jade's favorite place on Hillys, from the laidback atmosphere of the Akuda Bar, with its Spanish/Latino rap soundtrack to the simple 'welcome home' felling you got when you walked into Fountain Square with Nouri's kiosk, Ming-Tzu's Equipment dealership and the deep water of the fountain itself, the Pedestrian District was where one could spend hours, watching the hovercraft races on massive screens courtesy of General Kheck's Alpha Sections, or wander among the various shops and kiosks, owners displaying their latest goods and produce or wile away time at the Akuda Bar and try a game of Three Coconut Monty with Peepers. The rest of the city was just as amazing. Even the few factories, which assembled the non-organic needs of the Seaview population, hover cars, building metal, parts, were part of Seaview's 'town on an island charm' anything for your mechanical needs could be found in the Industrial District. Continuing further and one would find other residential areas. The old Alpha Section HQ and Warehouses now converted into a bustling spaceport that fed the city and its surrounding area with exotic or unobtainable supplies. It was truly a city where you could live your entire life and never grow tired of it, never lose that sense of wonder, never lose that insatiable desire just to keep exploring around the next corner.

Seaview was all these things, no longer. The dark night silhouetted the streams of anti-aircraft fire that lanced into the night sky, questing for a victim. Though it was hard to make out the smoke in the darkness that same darkness enhanced that source of the smoke, brilliant fires raged across the city, the result of urban warfare. It was all too much, Jade stared in shocked horror at the vista below the invisible ship, she looked down at Sev, for most people it was hard to tell what Sev was thinking below the cold exterior and front of grim determination that he put up.

Jade's horror lanced through Sev like a knife in his heart. Her suffering made it all the more worse. It was the same nightmare all over again.

_I climbed out of the wreckage through a small hole I had made by pulling the debris away. As I wormed my way out into the dawn sky I could smell smoke. All around fires raged, pouring volumes of thick black smoke into the orange morning skies of Furia. As I looked around I saw a glow in the distance, the city burning furiously. I looked out across the courtyard where, hours before I stood beside my Father as we watched the night sky and I dreamt of my future as the ruler of a whole system. The courtyard was now unrecognizable, three large, green, teardrop shaped objects covered in strange lumps were half buried in the solid ground. I could tell that danger was nearby; I drew my sword from its nano-sheath. I approached the meteor; I had no other words to describe it, my foot crunched on something. I looked around; small green fragments of what must have been organic matter surrounded me. Alert now I edged around the meteor, my hair blowing in the breeze. My Father, he lay dead on the ground, his body lacerated with hundreds of slashes, in his hands laid a sword and data pad. I did not dare touch his sword, it was crafted for my Father and so must never leave his hand. But the data pad was on and had something written on it. I picked it up and accessed the last entry_

_For my son, I have a grave warning. Listen well, for if you do not, you will die. I accessed the file and read through it, my disbelief and horror growing with every word. I finished reading, dropped the data pad and crushed it under my boot, making sure to grind the data crystals into dust. I walked to the family's garage finding the bodies of house staff everywhere. I found the family's Mercadi Stilleto. An old ship christened Icarus, I gathered my belongings and dumped them in the captain's quarters. I activated the garage doors, walked back to the ship and flew it out of the ashes of my home._

_I had always loved looking at Furia from space, and now I would do it one last time, but it was no longer the beautiful verdant planet it once was, greens and blues mixed with the lights of cities so large they could be seen from space, now the entire planet was blackened. The victim of a ruthless enemy's scorched Earth tactics, I maneuvered the graceful yacht out through the wreckage of space stations and factories, shipyards and blasted hulks, set up a hyperspace vector and left Furia, never to return. Os so I had thought then…_

The ship put down on a small outcropping that no one would be able to reach, unless they had a hoverbike, like Sev's. The night was cold as Sev maneuvered the bike across the island, Jade clinging to his back. They pulled up on the outskirts of the city.

"Lets go. I don't know what we'll find but…We'll find your friends, I can feel it." Sev said as much to reassure himself as Jade.

"You do know we might die in there." Jade said.

"I've lived my whole life running, always knowing that one wrong step and I'd die, I'm used to that feeling by now. You just need to have a goal to reach and that goal will be what sees you through."

Jade thought about Sev's words. Then did something neither of them saw coming, she stepped closer to Sev, stretched up and kissed him. "I, I'm sorry I, didn't know what I was doing. I haven't been thinking straight and…"

It was a testament to Sev's level of control that he had managed to cover at least some of his surprise at jade's sudden move. _'Here we go…' _Sev opened his mouth to say what he had been feeling for all this time when a patrol of twenty Alphas spotted them.

"Hey Stop!" The leader yelled, drawing his T-Hammer. Before anyone could react the Alphas had surrounded Sev and Jade. They drew their weapons, prepared to fight back-to-back, The Alphas closed in. The next thing Sev knew they had both had their retinas scanned, he knew they didn't have him on file, yet but they would defiantly have Jade on a file. This would mean more trouble ahead, predictably…

'Its her! Quick kill the other one and bring her in!" An Alpha with Lieutenant markings on his shoulder pads ordered.

"Sir yes sir!" The ring of soldiers chanted in unison.

"I don't think so" Sev stated, he wasn't remotely afraid of what the Alphas could do to him, he could take this lot on his own, but he was worried about Jade, Sev had no idea of how she would fare in a fight, he had a good idea that these Alphas would be little challenge for her. "You really don't want to come any closer" Sev told the Alphas. Something furry and soft gripped his hand, Jade, wearing a gyrodisk glove. Sev gave her hand a gentle squeeze while running a mental checklist of all the weapons he could hold in that hand _'Any one of my knives, 2430 Desert Eagle SE, grenade, then again maybe not' _he felt the grip loosen. At the same time he could sense Jade placing both her hands o her dai-jo. _'Here we go again' _Sev thought, he could sense Jade through the telepathic link. He stepped away from her, confident that he would know the moment she was in trouble and directed his first swing, the Alpha blocked it with his hammer, the impact shuddering up Sev's bones, he brought the sword around again faster than the eye could blink, slicing through the Alphas armour and dropping his enemy to the ground. Sev moved faster than the Alphas could react, dropping two within a few seconds. H ducked under a third's swing and brought his sword up through the soldier's armour, he impaled another an brought his sword down through the fifth's armour. He leapt up onto the ninth's chest plate and plunged his sword into the soldiers neck, then he launched himself off came over the other Alpha and sliced this one's breathing tank in half on the way down. He spun around to assist Jade. She was standing surrounded by a pile of dead Alphas and had apparently been watching him fight his Alphas using old-fashioned methods while she had taken down her adversaries with some unknown power.

It had finally happened; with such a release of emotions just a moment ago she knew it would come. _'dammit, why couldn't you control yourself? Why did you have to go and let your blind romantic imagination take over? Now it knows, now it'll try to catch you again! Stop acting like a lovesick school girl and start thinking about what you're going to do now you fool!' _Jade managed to ignore the mental tongue lashing her more sensible side was giving her while Sev made a flashy show of spinning his sword on his hand so fast it was a blur. He finally returned the sword to its sheath, which melded itself around the weapon instantly.

"Hmm" looks like we'll need to head back to the ship, they'll know we're here now and I've got some gear that'll help us get past whatever the Alphas can throw at us. Oh, and we'll have to bring Fehn along, we can dump 'im at the Iris den."

"You sure it's a good idea to bring Fehn, he's just a kid and want to take him into a warzone!"

"I'll protect him, that's why we need my gear."

Half an hour later they were sneaking through the ruins of the city, making their way to the Akuda Bar. Sev had bulked up on ammunition and had changed his cream trousers for a pair of combats, he had also added a dark green cap to complete the effect, _'You look like an idiot, and she defiantly seems to think so' _Sev glanced at Jade, who he could feel had been watching him the entire time though he had a strange suspicion that it wasn't because of his poor attempt at camouflage. _'Focus' _he told himself sternly, he crept forward and leaned around the corner of the ruined storefront they had been creeping along, frag! A checkpoint, there was a durasteel wall that spanned the entire wall, it had a door in the center with a control room on one side, a semicircle parapet on each side with an Alpha manning a heavy machine gun, on top of the wall were two small towers, each one holding what Sev recognized to be an M-606 section automatic weapon, the Alphas in the towers were also cradling Malari M-20 .50 caliber sniper rifles. Sev silently drew his M-29 O.I.C.W from the nano-sheath and took aim at the first machine gunner, he depressed the trigger and a 25mm grenade shot out, it hit the Alpha, smearing him against the wall, Sev blew the other machine gunner clean over the wall before the Alphas could react. One of the snipers spotted him just in time to be flung from his perch by Sev's third grenade; the fourth grenade blew the other tower to shreds, launching its occupant sky high. Sev fired the last grenade at the door in the center of the wall, the explosion flung the remaining Alphas into the shops on either side of the street. To get through that door they would need something else. Sev, jade and Fehn ran to the wall, which was now blackened from the blast of Sev's grenade, Sev dropped the spent magazine to the ground, summoned a new magazine of 25mm grenade's from his S.A.C and loaded it into his gun, he drew the action back and savored the reassuring metallic click as he let the bolt slide back into place. "Jade how are you're hacking skills?"

"Not bad" Jade replied.

"Good, see what you can do about that door" Sev said. He looked up just in time to see a small camera dangling on a long, articulate arm. The camera had been watching them the whole time _'So much for stealth' _Sev thought, he summoned his 2430 Desert Eagle SE (Special Edition) from his S.A.C, took aim at the camera and fired, the big, long barreled pistol let off a booming report and its heavy .357 caliber bullet blew the camera to tiny fragments. "They know were here, better get a move on" he told Jade and Fehn unnecessarily, both had seen the camera. _'camera…' _the word jolted something in Sev's memory, he watched Jade trying to get the door open and the two came together _'Jade's camera! Its in my S.A.C I'll have to remember to give it to her at some point.' _Sev stored the memo in the back of his mind while he tried to think of another way past the checkpoint.

"Got it!" Jade yelled triumphantly. Sev marched over to the booth and the big doors folded away.

"Nice" Sev commented in a way meant to sound offhand, but he was honestly impressed with Jade's speed. She gave him a sweet smile and walked through the gates. Now would be a good time, Sev decided. He caught up with Jade and summoned the camera out of his S.A.C "Hey Jade, look what I found in the Alpha's base on Atlas" He held up the camera. It got the reaction he expected.

"My camera!" Jade yelled, she rushed over ad grabbed it, examining her precious camera from every angle, she flicked it on and took a picture, realizing just how much she had missed that whir and click that her camera made. Pey'j had given this thing to her when she was just a little girl; he had said it was from her parents. From that day on the camera never left her side. As the only thing she hade to remind her of her parents, Jade always kept the camera close, these past few months were the only time when Jade had been separated from her camera and now she realized again just how much the precious little device meant to her. She stored it away in her S.A.C, making sure it was safely digitized. She looked up at Sev unable to think of anything to say, so she hugged him and then kissed him again. Though this time Sev seemed a bit more prepared he smiled at Jade's gesture of thanks

'_Ha!' _Sev thought _'Didn't manage to surprise me his time did you' _but he was genuinely happy with the way Jade had chosen to show her appreciation for returning her camera. "We'd best be going. The Alphas know we're here now." With that Sev took the lead, quickly recovered from Jade's second move on him within ten minutes of landing on Hillys he drew his sword and walked forward twelve feet.

Jade watched Sev from where she was standing trying to work out what had come over her again, _'You've got to stop acting like that, this is a war and…' _just then Jade noticed something glint in the window of a two story office across the road from where Sev was standing, something clicked in her mind _'Sniper!' _ Jade started to run towards Sev as a blue laser designator appeared, it traced its way along the ground towards Sev's feet "Sev look out!" Jade screamed. The beam traced its way across Sev's chest and came to a rest on his neck. Sev saw the beam, he moved to dodge nut it was to late. In those last few milliseconds Sev, realized what had been nagging at him this whole time '_Jade, I love you'_.

The sniper had watched this man as he demolished his comrades. He knew immediately what this stranger was, a Furion, the last of the Furions. The last of an ancient race of warriors who's lineage had spanned many millions of years. Now he alone would be the one to finish of this thorn in his master's side, he would be praised and he would be rewarded in a way none of his comrades could ever hope for. Now was his chance. It took a mere eight seconds to line up the Furion as he stood, calmly watching the streets as arrogant and convinced of his own immortality as the rest. It took him mere milliseconds to finalize his aim on his target's neck. It took him only another millisecond to pull the trigger and send the fifteen-centimeter bullet tearing towards his target at hypersonic velocity, in that mere millisecond, the last of the Furions fell…sideways? The bullet should have sliced him in half!

Sev owed jade his life, her warning had given him that split second he needed to lean backwards just as the bullet streaked over his head, its massive slipstream pulling at his hair. When he came back up he had a massive Bowie knife's blade in his hand. He used the momentum to hurl the blade through the window.

The sniper saw the knife coming but unlike the Furion could not dodge it, there was nothing he could do as the blade spun towards him and buried itself between his eyes. At least it was a quick end.

Sev dusted his hands, frowning at the window were the sniper had taken up residence "Now I have to go it there and get my knife" he said in an offhand manner, though it sounded callous. It took hima minute to scale he side of the building and retrieve his knife from the sniper's body. He swung in through the window to check out the sniper's roost. It looked like the guy was well set up food, comms, couple of crates. A blocky gun caught Sev's eye, it was about similar length to most rifle but consisted purely of one long rectangular block, at one end the trigger and grip sat inside the stock and at was a pump action. In between hung a stubby magazine _'A frag gun! Excellent!' _Sev walked over and picked up the 25th century shotgun and cradled it in his hands it was practically weightless. Though he was used to that now, nearly all guns since the 22nd century were made out of extremely strong carbon fibre plastic, Sev had used frag guns enough to know how they worked, it was like shotgun loaded with flechette shells, rather than pellets, a frag gun shell held densely packed shards of razor sharp metal that ripped a target to pieces, it was a simple, brutal weapon no bothering around with aim simply unload a frag gun shell on your target and they would be torn to shreds by dozens of razor sharp slivers of metal. Sev ripped the bolt out of the weapon; he had never liked frag guns anyway. He dropped back down to street level and walked over to where jade was standing and simply said, "Lets go…"

It took another hour to reach the resistance frontlines battling through the Alpha Section lines. Or rather it took another hour to reach the Hovercraft races. The trio stood on a mountain of wreckage near the far side of the collapsed dome that provided access to the dozen or so races held around Hillys. Sev checked out the local area. This lobby-esque structure was one enormous dome with a short tunnel that led to the main canal that ran through the heart of Seaview, to Sev it was obvious why the sounds of battle had intensified getting closer, this canal would allow either side access to the entire city, not to mention allowing easy access to the outside world. It would be a valuable bit of territory. For now however Sev contented himself with his current surroundings, the dome had three tunnels in a T-shaped arrangement; one led out to the main canal the other lead to various races. The rear wall had collapsed into the water, judging from the surrounding destruction a result of laser artillery. It was on the remnants of the wall that Sev and his companions were standing.

"How are we gonna get to the Iris home?" Fehn asked, looking out to where, in the distance, the docks of the pedestrian district could be seen faintly. He looked up at Jade, who was holding his hand, she could see the fear in the youngster's eyes.

"Its simple" Sev said in the closest thing to a reassuring voice his English tinged growl could manage. The next part however ruined any reassurance he had given "We swim."

"Are you crazy?" Jade snapped "Fehn can't swim that far. And we're not just gonna leave him behind!" she added.

"I never suggested that" Sev replied calmly. He wasn't willing to argue with Jade on account of how stubborn he knew she'd be. But just who would win they never knew, just as Jade opened her mouth to say something a hail of gunfire erupted around them. Sev took the opportunity to grab Jade by her jacket and throw her into the water, followed by Fehn.

Jade hit the water and went under, her momentum carried her about two meters before she came up spluttering and gasping for air, Fehn broke the surface near her. Up on the mountain of rubble she could see Sev with his sword drawn "Go! Go swim! Get out of here!" he roared. Without another word he vanished but Jade could hear the sounds of a fight breaking out, without another look back, she grabbed Fehn and began to swim to across the canal…

Sev drew the fight out to ten minutes, but that wasn't the end of his trouble, someone had called in air support. Just as he felled that last laser rifle armed Alpha a gunship came hovering up over a ruined apartment block. It was like an L on its side, a long nose that stretched straight down eight metres in a rough D with a large canopy in the center and a long tail with wide fins on it. Just behind the nose were two long fins that terminated in a pair of multi-exhausted ram scoop engines with enormous collection fins on the front. From the bottom of the nose a quad barreled cannon hung, Sev could also spot six gun ports on the nose, a machine gun on either side of the nose and eight missiles, four slung under the two wings. He ran for it and the gunship gave chase, firing as it came and tearing up the street around Sev like paper in a turbine with Sev at the center of the howling bullet storm. Sev dashed down a side street and managed to loose the gunship for a second or two, then he chase started again with Sev slowly loosing ground. He realized that he wasn't going to escape this gunship there was only one other option: bring it down. _'Great plan! Notice you haven't got anything that could SHOOT DOWN A GUNSHIP!' _Sev admonished himself; he would just have to find another way to take out the aircraft. He ducked inside an apartment, hoping to get a moment to formulate a plan, all it earned him was the gunship crew switching to the chin gun. The nose-mounted guns were machine guns but the chin gun was a Hertz-Rutger AMC (Aircraft Mounted Cannon) 550. Sev recognized it by the distinctive sound it made as it chewed up his cover. He dived to the side and the cannon shells shredded the wall where he had been hiding mere milliseconds ago. He was forced to keep up a desperate dash to keep just ahead of the rolling destruction; Sev noticed that he was rapidly running out of room, up ahead was a very solid wall lined with windows he scooped up a charred chunk of durasteel girder and flung it at the window. The glass shattered and Sev leapt through it, flying well clear of the glass on the ground and tumbling into the street. The gunship hadn't noticed that he was no longer in the building "Ladies and gentlemen, I have left the building" Sev left the corny one-liner hanging in the air before vanishing into the darkness, the gunship crew unaware of his disappearance…

PEDESTRIAN DISTRICT-Akuda Bar

Sev dragged himself into the bar, soaking wet. He had been forced to swim from some part of the city near the hovercraft races across the main canal and into the Pedestrian District, underwater and under fire. Now he walked in and was greeted by a row of gun barrels "Safe and sound in its shell the precious pearl is the slave of the currents" Sev said tiredly and the guards lowered their weapons and stepped aside, allowing him to march up the stair and into the Iris Den leaving a trail of water behind him.

"Hey Sev! You gunna leave me to mop all this up!" Mo shouted from the bar.

Sev turned around, pushing his wet hair out of his face "Yeah, yeah I am Mo" He said. Sev turned and came face to face with the ever-present master of Three Coconut Monty, Peepers.

"Just through that room, go up to the locker and they'll let you in, the kid, Jade's been having kittens over you" Peepers informed him, he mimicked Jade "'where is he? he should be back by now' You should get in there and calm her down, she'll come out after you soon" Peepers grinned, nearly losing his long pipe, which was now issuing a faint whisp of smoke and a faint smell of Carosian tabacco.

"Right, thanks for the warning" Sev said, immensely glad that his, current sodden state prevented him from going too red, without another word he trapped into the room with Peepers' faint laughter fading away behind him. He stepped up to the locker, it jolted and began to rotate. It span a slow 180 and shuddered to a stop, Sev stepped off it into the Iris Den…


	6. Final Liberation

Chapter 6:Final Liberation

"For freedom I die today, I fall with glory for I fall knowing that I have given my life to freeing my fellows, remember me, remember our cause"-Last words of Col. Ferris Calman at the battle of Fallenhiem circa 2210

The first thing Sev saw when he walked down the ramp into the square room which provided the Iris base of operation on Hillys was a brief glimpse of a figure dashing towards him before Jade crashed into him and winded him. She pulled him into a tight hug and Sev wrapped his arms around her shoulders, he was starting to run out of oxygen "Jade, I can't breathe" he wheezed.

"Sorry" jade apologized and loosened her grip.

"Thanks" Sev said, now that he could breathe again he could appreciate just how much happiness he could feel emanating from Jade, laced with unrestrained love. '_What the frag, since we're all probably going to die, no point hiding it' _he figured but hey, he wasn't complaining. Jade looked up at him, her green eyes full of fading worry and now happiness, Sev brushed aside her fringe and kissed her gently on her forehead before letting go and turning to face the assembled members of the Iris network oe arm still around Jade's shoulders.

"Well let's get started" Nino said, showing no sins that he had noticed Sev and Jade's reunion "Uhh, we'll start with introductions, you already know me. This is Mei" He indicated a blue haired female cat with large green eyes wearing a black long sleeve shirt and combats, a Farrier .45 pistol strapped to her combat belt, on her table she was resting her arm on a Dragunov SMK Sniper Rifle. She nodded in greeting. Sev turned back to Nino, who indicated a pair of men "these are Colo and Eli"

"Yo man" Colo said.

"wassup?" Eli grinned.

Sev took the time to examine Colo and Eli, they were clearly brothers, sharing short, wavy red hair, brown eyes and a solid build, bother were armed with Morita Assault weapons, like an M-29 but smaller and longer, Sev made a mental note to trade in his M-29 for one of the twin's Moritas.

"Like 'em do ya" Colo asked, noticing Sev eyeing the guns. "We got a couple o' spares if ya want one"

"Sounds good" Sev replied. This was defiantly a good day, Sev was a big fan of Moritas.

"Sick deal bro, talk to me bro' Eli here, he'll hook ya up with Shard, the armourer an' he'll get cha what cha needs"

"Right, I'll remember that" Sev was well versed in the obscure language known as Street so the Street-talking twins didn't confuse him and they looked slightly put out by his easy understanding of their obscure speech.

"Okay now that we all know each other, lets get to work" Nino said. "First up we have several important areas that we need to take over, namely the Spaceport, the TachBand Communications Installation and the local Fusion Power Plant. Additionally our spies have uncovered the location of General Kheck's base where, we have confirmed he is holding Hahn, the chief and the kids from the lighthouse. Their base is impenetrable to an assault, so we will have to make it a one man infiltration, any volunteers?"

"I'll go" Jade said in a tone that left no room for argument. She felt the comforting weight on her shoulders disappear. Sev had stepped back from her and everyone in the room was staring at her in shock. "Don't try to stop me, their my family and my friend therefore I go." Jade resolutely stared each of them down. Sev was last; he only put up a brief resistance before backing down.

"Alright, go up to the surface and talk to Chick, she'll give you what we've got. Good luck Jade." Nino said.

"Luck"

"Come back soon"

Jade turned to Sev; he nodded and said, "I know you can do it. Be careful." Jade looked away before he could see tears forming and quickly dashed out before they fell.

Sev stared at the spot where Jade had disappeared for a moment before turning back to the Iris team, who were gathered around the table in the center of the room and the massive hologram of the city and surrounding area with various holographic tags hovering above parts of the three dimensional map.

"Lieutenant Caravera?" Nino asked in a cautious voice.

"Huh?" Sev was startled out of his trance "Just got the feeling like I'll never see her again" he said, too quietly for anyone to hear. Then Nino's words sank in "Lieutenant?"

"That's right, since you're now a member of the Iris Network's militia branch we need skilled soldiers to lead our men and women into action. Your skills will be invaluable in a combat command role hence your immediate promotion to lieutenant" Nino informed Sev. Sev declined to respond instead he joined Nino, Colo, Eli and Mei at the table. Nino cleared his throat and made to continue he looked around the assembled freedom fighters, wondering if he would see any of them again. "Alright, to take any of these locations: the Spaceport, Comms Installation or Power Plant we need to first capture or destroy a series of Alpha Section bunkers, dumps and forward bases" As he named each target he pointed it out on the holographic map that covered the table, each target was highlighted with a red ring around it and a unique tag with an Alpha Sections logo in the center, the smaller bases, bunkers, checkpoints, etcetera were labeled by arrows with the Alpha Section logo. "We plotted the best routes through the bases to each critical target, see here" He punched in a command on the holoprojector's console and three red lines sprung up, each one leading through a series of Alpha bases towards on of the main targets.

"Right, what's the plan?" Sev asked.

"Well, You Colo and Eli each pick a target and lead your team there. We hit each target simultaneously so the Alphas are confused and therefore incapable of reacting to at least one of the attacks.

"Sounds good, divide my team members up between Colo and Eli, I'll take the Power Plant. Alone" Sev said in a don't-argue-with-me tone, his relationship with Jade was really starting to rub off on him. It was going to get him killed.

"Are you crazy? We've already got Jade on a suicide mission we don't need to lose two of our best people!" Eli snapped.

"Hey! I'm not 'one of your people' Nino, I'm a merc and I do things my way or you can find another merc, I'm sure plenty of people will be queuing up to fight the Alphas!" Sev snapped, he wasn't used to people contradicting him when he decided how he would get the contract done, speaking of contracts… "About my pay Nino, I want 50K or you'll wish you'd never met me' Sev said menacingly.

"We can't afford that sort of money. And anyway I would have thought you'd be willing to do this, considering your current…attractions to one of our members" Nino said nastily, with a hint of what Sev deducted to be jealousy.

'_Frag it! I don't have time for some love triangle! All the more reason to collect my pay and…hell who am I kidding I'm in this for the long haul' _Sev thought while Nino continued ranting. "Give Colo and Eli my troopers. You'll know when I've taken out the power plant, incidentally you do want it destroyed don't you?" Sev asked.

"Yes, blow it hell and back the Alphas are using it to power their HQ, where Jade…" Nino's voice broke for a moment and Sev caught a glimpse of Nino's real reasons for not arguing about his going in alone. It would make things easier for Jade and likely remove Sev from the picture. He'd probably be vaporized when the power plant went up. With him out of the way Nino would have a shot at Jade who he had, now clearly, loved from afar but had been too scared to move in

'_All the more reason to get paid and make yourself scared' _Sev's more logical side told him. "The next time you hear from me will be a big boom" Sev said no more he turned around and departed.

SEAVIEW FUSION POWER PLANT-Reactor Core

Sev yet again shook his head at the absurd ease with which he had infiltrated the vitally important structure. It had been incredibly easy for him to find a convenient air duct and plant the explosive charges on the reactor core's thick tungsten walls. When the core was breached the enormous pressure would blast wholly unstable gasses out to meet the air. This would start the most destructive reaction in the universe: a matter-antimatter explosion. Antimatter would be created by the force with which the gasses from the core crashed into the oxygen-nitrogen outside the core propelled by the huge pressure inside the core. This antimatter would come into contact with matter, dust in the air was enough, this in turn would obliterate everything within…Sev quickly ran through some rough calculations in his head…about a mile in any direction. Fusion plants were built a good mile or more from any settlements for this very reason. He finished setting the charges and set the remote detonator to the charges frequency. Then he crawled back into the vent. About two miles away he detonated the charges.

As Sev walked across the farmlands he noticed the strange absence of anyone trying to find him. After that stunt he had expected at least to be being pursued by flights of gunships, hovercraft and high altitude recon planes and drones. If truth be told it was nice not to have anyone hunting him at first, but as time went by Sev became more and more uneasy. Without warning a bright spotlight illuminated him, warming his skin it was so powerful. He quickly found the source: An important looking craft was hovering about twenty meters behind him, as it closed Sev reached for his sword.

"Don't waste your time boy!" A voice boomed out on a megaphone. The gunship, bearing important looking markings pulled up ten meters away from him and twelve above the ground. Hovering there the voice boomed again "Wondering why you weren't detected, wondering why you weren't hunted, well I've got a little present for you' The voice was slowly becoming familiar the Sev placed it Kheck! "You don't really think that all this sneaky scurrying you did went unnoticed do you? We caught your pretty little friend just as she had let the prisoners out and was about to escape herself" The door slid back and the gunship's spotlight switched off, in the moonlight Sev was able to make out six figures standing in the gunship, one wriggling furiously, foru with sinister red eyes in the middle of their heads and one holding onto the wriggling figure. Suddenly lights on he side of the gunship came on and Sev was able to see who was in it. Four Alphas, Kheck and…Jade! Kheck was keeping a tight grip on her; Sev made to draw his sword, his body shaking with fury but was cut off by Kheck's words. "Exactly the reaction I wanted" The huge man smiled and ordered a pair of his alpha guards to hold onto Jade as he stepped back. Jade turned to face him, Sev realized what was about to happen

"No!" He roared tearing towards the gunship at full speed. The gunship started to rise; as it rose Sev stood watching helplessly. Then it came he heard the unmistakable sound of a gun firing, two shots, Jade cried out. The Alphas reappeared over the side of the gunship and tossed something out. It hit the ground with a thud, Sev dashed over, praying it wasn't what he thought it was. He skidded to a stop and threw his sword aside. He felt tears stinging his eyes and he cried openly as he cradled Jade's lifeless body in his arms. What he didn't notice was strange rivulets of green light flowing down his arms and crossing to the center of Jade's chest before disappearing into her wounds. The two jagged holes in Jade's chest slowly sealed over, leaving nothing but faint white scars and bloody patches on her shirt. Sev felt a soft breath of air on his cheek stirring his hair, but the grass around him wasn't moving. He felt Jade's wrist, a pulse! She wasn't dead! "Jade! Jade!" Sev shouted shaking her gently. Her eyes fluttered open, she looked up at Sev, a slightly confused expression in her large green eyes.

"What happened?" Jade asked groggily, her memory wasn't the best at the moment and finding herself in Sev's arms, while pleasant only added to the confusion. "Sev, what…happened to me? I remember…a…gunship then nothing"

"You got shot" Sev said in a tone half amused half pure joy.

"I…what!" Jade asked wide awake now, _'shot! Shouldn't I be dead?'_ "But of I was shot, how come I'm talking to you now? Shouldn't I be dead?"

"Technically yes. I don't now how but something brought you back to life. Can you walk?" Sev did the asking, his voice now laced with concern for Jade's health.

"I, I think so" Jade said, Sev stood up, pulling Jade onto her feet with him. She took a few staggering steps keeping a tight grip on Sev's arm before walking on her own "I'll be fine, I'm just a bit dizzy that's all."

"You should be happy if that's all you feel, you took two bullets to the chest and fell 20 meters of a gunship. Most people would be feeling a whole lot worse," Sev said dryly.

"That's not all I feel" Jade said staring Sev in the eye.

Sev gave a brief smile at the none too subtle hint. He walked past Jade towards the burning city. He knew she was just flirting with him, but Sev was far too smart to be pulled into a game with someone like Jade. He could make a reasonably accurate guess that he'd come off second-best. "Come on. Lets find out how Colo and Eli went on their attacks" He said over his shoulder…

MAIN CANAL

"We'll never get back that way," Jade moaned. They had arrived at the main canal with little challenge. Partly because of the Iris networks multiple "Island Hopping" attacks, most famously used by General Douglas McArthur of Earth back in the 20th century against the Japanese during WW2. The attacks on such a wide front had proven as effective at splitting up the enemy's forces now in the 25th century as it had back in the 20th. Jade sat on the edge of the canal her legs dangling over the side. Sev sat on a fallen wall just behind her. He stared out across the canal taking in every detail, the defenses the Alphas had on the canal had definitely intensified. "Lets go find another way." Jade said standing up and walking past Sev.

Sev staid where he was for a moment then stood up and fished around in his pocket for something. He pulled a small gold ring with a tiny emerald stud out of his pocket and examined it on the moonlight. It was an engagement band he had bought on Atlas for Jade. Well considering the current turn of events it was probably going to stay in his pocket for a good long time. As he held the ring he caught sight of his own ring. Funnily enough it was old with his family crest carved out of another emerald. Some would say it was a sign, after what he'd been through in the past few months Sev was inclined to agree.

"Who's that for?" came a voice from behind him.

Sev jumped and quickly dropped the ring into his fist. "No-one" He answered too quickly, he looked across the canal again "Just keeping it for a friend".

"Of course" Jade said, mimicking his dry tone with a smile. She didn't believe him for a second.

"You can have it" Sev replied. I don't think my friend would want to be tied down anyway" Which was as close to the truth as Sev would come. He took Jade's wrist and dropped the ring in her hand. "Its yours now" He said quickly turning away again before he went to far and said why he really had it.

"Sev…this is an engagement band. Do you…" Jade never got a chance to finish before Sev cut her off.

"No, its…family tradition" Sev quickly invented he story. His family had no such tradition, preferring arranged marriages that strengthened the family _'price of being noble' _Sev thought. "I think we could swim across again. We'd have to go underwater though and it looks like a good long way. Can you swim that far?" Sev asked

"Easily" Jade answered. Family tradition she didn't believe that for a second. Perhaps Sev would ask her after this was all over; then again he seemed so introverted. She could always dream.

"That being the case…Jade are you listening to me?" Sev asked noticing the dreamy look in Jade's eyes.

"Huh? What? Oh sorry what were you saying?" Jade hadn't been listening.

"That being the case we can dive off here, swim underwater to the pedestrian district and come up there. Lets go" Was the last Sev said before diving into the frigid, paralyzing cold water.

PEDESTRIA DISTRICT

Sev swum at the very bottom of the canal with Jade not far behind him it was absolutely freezing in the water but Sev was more worried about anything with big teeth swimming into the canal unnoticed amidst the fighting, fortunately none of Hilly's marine predators had taken any interest in searching the canals for a feed. The smaller, non-biting variety of fish had taken up refuge in the canals and had provided a useful distraction and cover for the pair to swim unnoticed to the docks at the Pedestrian district. They finally reached the docks, Sev indicated to go up and swum for he surface. He broke the surface of the water and took in a huge gulp of air, panting, he swum to the docks and hauled himself up for a second time. He reached over and pulled, Jade up with him. They lay facing each other on the wood catching their breath. Sev looked over at Jade, who's face was from exertion and glistening with water "There has got to be a better way to make a living." He said in between taking breaths of air.

"I'm sure there is" Jade panted back. She rolled over and o to her hands and knees; she crawled over to Sev who was still lying on the ground. "Thanks for the ring Sev" She said, with one hand she brushed hair out of the way, bent down and gave Sev a brief kiss, before standing up and walking away.

Sev watched her go, thinking about Jade's latest token of appreciation, the woman sure knew how thank someone. Sev touched his l were Jade had kissed him, examined his fingers and said to himself "I could get used this". He rolled over, stood up and joined Jade as they walked back to the Akuda Bar for he second time. At the bar's entrance Jade gave the password and they walked in and for the second time Mo shouted at Sev for leaving water all over the floor. No longer in his usual sullen mood Sev replied by vigorously shaking his head like a wet dog, sending water from his hair flying everywhere. As Sev looked up again he heard someone familiar shout Jade's name. They looked in the direction of the shout. Pey'j was standing on the upper floor of the bar, looking down at the two.

"Pey'j!" Jade shouted running up to him ad leaping into her uncle's arms. "Pey'j I missed you so much" Jade said.

"I missed you to darlin" Pey'j replied. H was feeling so happy and relieved at his adoptive daughter's safe return and he was so proud of her for what she had accomplished. Because of her Hillys could soon be free again, but what next? Jade was too restless too sit safe on Hillys while other worlds suffered under the Alpha's regime. At least he would be around to protect her this time.

"Where's Double H?" Jade asked now standing up.

"Umm, well you see…" Pey'j started to answer but was cut of by the dripping mercenary who had come in with Jade; Pey'j couldn't quite remember his name.

"I'm not going on another rescue mission," the tall mercenary stated simply.

"What if it was me who needed rescuing?" Jade asked in a sweet voice.

"You never know" Sev replied in as close to the same voice Jade had used as his English accented growl could reach.

"What happened to Double H?" Jade rounded on Pey'j, determined not to be deflected again.

"Come on, I'll show you" Pey'j said, turning towards the entrance to the IRIS Den and beckoning them to follow. When they entered Hub was lying on the bed I the small room, his armour gone and in its place a white shirt ad black jeans. A large section of his shirt was missing and the edges were blood red. A large nanotech health kit covered the entire left side of Hub's gut.

Jade gasped and dashed over to Hub's side. Meanwhile Sev glanced at the monitor showing Hub's vital signs, it didn't look good. The 3D-wirframe of Hub showed serious damage to his stomach, kidney, and lung, his ribs were gone replaced by temporary ones built by the nanotech health kit. Other readouts showed severe hemorrhages in his lung and stomach. With Sev's limited medical knowledge it didn't take him long to figure out that if Hub didn't get surgery soon he would die. The nanotech health kit could repair some of the damage and staunch the bleeding but as soon as it ran out there would be nothing to hold back the internal bleeding. Hub needed to be moved to a surgery where the surgeons could use more advanced Surgery nanites to repair Hub's injuries.

"He got hit while we were trying to escape" Pey'j explained.

"No standard caliber bullet would do that much damage, what did he get hit with?" Sev asked the pig.

"A frag gun from a good distance I think, cut him up real bad, as you can see" Colo said from his chair, which he was leaning against the wall on. "Moment I saw him go down I turned and blasted the fragbait with a Morita grenade." Colo held up his Morita for added emphasis.

"Right" Sev answered, he looked down at Jade; she had gone very pale and was shaking. Sev could see she was afraid. If someone as big and strong as Hub could go down so easily, she would be imagining what would happen if she took a hit. _'Better take her mind of it' _Sev thought. He walked over and put his arm around Jade.

"Don't tell me he's going to be all right," Jade said shortly. "I know what those monitors mean, Hub needs surgery, but where on Hillys can we get him some."

"I wasn't going to say that" Sev answered, showing no signs that he had noticed Jade's harsh tone "What I was going to say is that I think I can help with the surgery part, but I need the Zero-Tau pod on my ship…"

BORDERWORLDS-Hellport-Avarice's hideout-19/9/2435

The Borderworlds are at the very edge of colonized space. The term encloses the stations and planets that ring Commonwealth territory. The Borderworlds are host to two separate schools of thought. One believes that the Borderworlds are a romantic place where roguish charming independent space captains and mercenaries do battle with space pirates in the name of a damsel in distress. The reality of the Borderworlds is that the 'charming' captains are often as bad as the pirates they fight, that is if they themselves are not pirates and the damsels they do battle for are often more than capable of taking care of themselves.

Sev slammed the small man into a wall and held him up by the front of his greasy, grimy shirt with one hand. The man who called himself Avarice was a pathetic, weak miserable excuse for a human being, his only redeeming point being his masterful surgical skills, high tech surgery and advanced implants. This combination made the despicable doctor as arrogant as it was possible for a gen-modified human to be. 'Dr' Avarice was a small man, barely 5'7", which made him shorter than Jade, he had short, scraggly, greasy brown hair which was fighting a loosing battle against grays. The doctor was clad in a grimy green surgeon's tunic over a black shirt and jeans. "Hey! I…haven't done anything! I swear I didn't do it! Okay okay, if this is about Tico's eye implants, it wasn't my fault! He shouldn't have removed the bandages!" Avarice managed to get out in a gravelly Texan accent that was the result of to many years in the contaminated air on Hellport.

"I know you haven't done anything" Sev replied calmly.

"Then why are you trying to choke me to death!" Avarice managed to choke out.

"Same reason everyone wants to kill you Avarice. I just don't like you" Sev explained in the same passive voice that was so out of place with him hold Avarice against the wall that it was obviously put on.

"What do you want Severus? What ever it is put me down or I won't do it!" Avarice choked out.

"Of course" Sev answered, he let go of Avarice who was at the time dangling a good half a foot of the floor. He fell to the ground in a heap. "Now Avarice, remember how you said you do anything I asked for free after I saved you from those Torran mercs?"

"No I would never say anything of the sort! I Avarice would never do anything for free!" the doctor had managed to climb to his feet, the only thing returning to him faster than his breath was his arrogance.

"Well you did, I uploaded a complete memory of the conversation into my nanite implants which you installed might I remind you, are you saying that your nanites are wrong, you did install them remember. It wouldn't be good for your publicity if people found out that your nanites aren't always working perfectly. Think of all those mercs you implanted." Sev told the doctor. It was all theatrics, it was well known across the Borderworlds that Dr. Avarice built and implanted nanites that were as good if not better than those available in the Commonwealth. The only problem was what he could do to your head if he wanted to. Sev didn't trust the doctor as far as he could throw a Commonwealth battle cruiser. Which was why he brought Hub into he surgery room encased safely within his Zero-Tau pod he silently decided to keep a very close eye on the doctor.

Avarice looked over the vital signs monitors on the Zero-Tau pod, muttering to himself and making notes in his nanite brain implants, Sev knew the doctor never even looked at any problem without giving it a thorough overview to start with, it was part of what made him such a brilliant surgeon, which in turn gave him an infuriating better-than-thou attitude. After a good minute of muttering the doctor spoke up 'This is a very serious case, He is completely missing two ribs, his lung is punctured and would have collapsed had you not put the nanotech health patch on, his stomach wall is gone and there are sever lacerations in his intestine, to top it all off there are severe hemorrhages in his lung and stomach. Frankly I'm surprised he has survived this long. What hit him?" Avarice asked as if it was of no consequence.

"The same thing I'll use on your legs if he dies, a frag gun" Sev answered coldly.

"Oh…well, I'll um" Avarice let out a sigh "If I take him out of Zero-Tau the shock will kill him, and if it doesn't the hemorrhages will. I'll have to operate on him while he's in Zero-Tau."

"Frag!" Jade started earning the stares of Sev and Avarice, she didn't seem like the type to use language like that.

"Lets go Jade, leave Avarice to do his work." Sev said, steering Jade out onto the streets of Hellport, she was immediately assaulted by the variety of smells, fuel from passing vehicles, the waste and rubbish flowing onto the streets and a million other noxious elements that made up…

"The smells of home' Sev said, taking a huge breath and savouring the contaminated air of his home of five years. It felt good to be back on the filthy, rusted and dangerous streets of Hellport and Sev took a moment to refresh his memory of the place. Hellport had first been established way back when in the 23rd Century when the Commonwealth was funding colonization of the Borderworlds, back then Hellport was known as DSCR (Deep Space Colonist Relay) 11345529 but due to the rich asteroids that shared orbit around Terbus the criminal element soon took over and Hellport was born. Hellport itself was a huge, vaguely ring-shaped space station that formed a complete ring around the green and white planet it orbited, a tiny Fahrenheit-class planet known as Terbus, as well as the ring around the planet that made up most of Hellport there were innumerable small stations among the ring of asteroids that also orbited Terbus. These asteroids were the why and how of the criminal overlords taking over Hellport, they contained many millions of tons of pure Trlyiium, a key ingredient in forging durasteel. The barons started by taking over the mining and processing stations among the asteroids. With a virtual stranglehold on Hellport's only income the barons were able to take over. Since then the baron's descendants had been in total control of Hellport. Hellport's interior was an odd conglomeration of rusted metal, glass and shining durasteel, down on street level where Sev and Jade were standing everything was built out of original parts from the old sleeper ships and Colony Cruisers that originally came to the Borderworlds, as such the street level was a mess of old rusted bits and pieces welded together to form a barely airtight, vaguely street shaped U of rust. About five kilometers up was the clear, transparisteel roof of Hellport, blackened from years of asteroid and weapon impacts and starship engines. Above street level was a the durasteel walls of the cleaner upper decks where any business that held any degree of self respect or legality was based around the shipyards and massive docks and hangers in the upper decks.

"Lets eat" Sev suggested, trying to take Jade's mind off Hub, there was nothing she could do for him now. It was all in Avarice's hands. After warning Jade to stay close to him again Sev steered her over to one of his old haunts, a spacer's bar which had been here since Hellport was first built: The Crashed Cruiser, a title which was rather appropriate seeing as the bar was made out of a decommissioned Colony Cruiser bridge. Sev stepped in waving greetings to old friends and taking a moment to restore his memory of the place. A semi-circular room with a couple dozen tables and a long bar in front of a twelve meter holoscreen, the whole place was lit by dim blue lights and some soft melodic music was playing through hidden speakers. Sev walked over to the bar and sat down on the stool, the bar, like everything else in the Crashed Cruiser seemed to be made of a blue metal due to the lighting and the fact that it actually was made of blue metal. "Usual Kresta" Sev said without looking at the barmaid.

"And that would be?" A young female voice asked, Sev looked up, a young girl no more than sixteen was standing behind the bar, and she had blonde hair that brushed her shoulders in a way that was vaguely familiar. It was exactly the way Sev's own hair fell but the girl also had a long, thin braid and large brown eyes. The whole combination was annoying familiar to Sev but she hadn't been here when Sev had made Hellport his home. "Well?" The girl asked, irritated now.

"Seraph Downs, that's the usual" Sev replied.

"Everything's the usual' the girl replied in what Sev only just realized was a English accent almost identical to his. _'Ally!'_ the name burst into his head, his little sister was alive and standing right here in front of him! "Allyshia"

Allyshia Caravera looked up at the scruffy mercenary; it was a long time since she'd heard that name. There was only one person it could possibly be. "S…Sev, is it you?' she asked shakily.

Sev just smiled, "Who else could it be".

Ally leapt over the bar and threw her arms around her brother Sev returned the embrace. As far as either could recall it had been five years since they had seen the other alive.

"Let me get a look at you" Sev said, holding Ally at arm's length. "You've grown, how old are you now?"

"Sixteen, and look at you Sev, I think you've got bigger to and I don't remember that haircut" Ally laughed.

"Sev?" Jade broke in.

"Jade, allow me to introduce you to me little sister Ally. Ally this is Jade my contract" Sev performed introductions. Now that Jade was satisfied as to this new girl's identity she reached out and shook Ally's hand. _'Why would you be jealous of her anyway, she's sixteen? I must be getting paranoid'_.

"What brings you to my humble home?" Ally asked "Surely not the drinks"

"Actually we came to see Avarice" Sev explained the story so far in brief: his contract, Jade, the revolution and Hub's surgery. "And that about covers it" Sev finished; he shuddered to think what Hub was undergoing at Avarice's hands.

"The Alpha Sections helped destroy Furia and our entire race, I'm coming with you" Ally looked up at Sev with a look that said 'I'm not taking no for an answer'.

Sev knew better than to ague with his sister, she could be extremely stubborn at times. "Alright, I'm going to check on Avarice, hopefully he's done something I can impale him for." Sev growled. "Jade, you fill Ally in on what's happening." Sev's only reason for giving Jade the task of bringing Ally up to date was that it was probably a good idea to keep Jade away from Avarice's Hideout until Hub's Zero-Tau surgery was over. It would be good for her if he did what he could to take her mind of it.

"Why I am playing teacher to your sister Sev" Jade said with a bit more venom than usual.

"Because it would be better if you don't see Hub being operated on in Zero-Tau" he leaned closer to Jade and said quietly "Look, I just don't want to put you through seeing someone get cut open in Zero-Tau, its not pretty."

Jade put up the defiance act for a moment longer, it wasn't that she was squeamish, it would take someone with an extremely strong stomach or emotion blocking implants to watch a Zero-Tau operation let alone perform one. "Alright" Jade said, trying to make it sound grudging. Sev patted her gently on the shoulder before disappearing.

As Sev walked of he was sure he heard Ally trying to get to know Jade. "Hey look at that hair colour, are you sure its natural…"

HELLPORT-Samson's Home

Sev didn't go back to Avarice straight away, first he made a sop at the home of an old friend: Samson. Samson's home was a small, tubular affair about twelve meters long by three wide. It was a gutted McDonnell Douglas C/A-13 Combat Cruiser main thruster tube and so Samson's home was the butt of many good-natured 'my home is a starship engine' jokes made by both his many friends and Samson himself. Samson was a man in his late sixties, gray haired, wrinkly but a powerful build and piercing blue eyes. Samson's wife, Betty a woman slightly shorter than Jade but with the same powerful build Samson had and brown eyes that held a perpetual 'favorite aunt' look. She placed two mugs of coffee on the table and sat down next to Samson. "Well my boy, what brigs you back to my humble home?" Samson asked in a mechanical voice, his vocal cords had been destroyed in the Battle of Paris way back in 2390, ever since then he'd had to use a nanite implant to speak.

"Well, its complicated Samson" Sev replied, trying to find a way to voice his feelings. 'I don't know how I can say this"

"Then do what I always tell you to do boy, say it up front. Don't go pansying around with flashed up lit'acy words and frag all." Samson said in a mock-harsh voice.

"Samson! Don't use such language!" Betty scolded.

"Sorry Betty" Samson said meekly. "Anywho, what's on your mind boy?"

"Really awkward contract Samson" Sev said slowly, choosing his words.

"You got involved with your target again" Samson cut straight to the point.

"Not target exactly, I took out a bodyguard contract on this girl and…" Sev hadn't finished trailing off before Samson interrupted him again.

"Boy how many times do I have to tell you, women and contracts don't mix!" Samson said in the same mock-harsh voice.

"I know I know" Sev replied, how many times had Samson told him that? _'Well you've really gone and stuffed it this time, she knows your I love with her'_.

"Well I can see in your eyes how much you've fallen for this girl, so I can't help you, you'll just have to deal with this one on your own. I can however give you a little tip, make sure you appreciate her" Samson told him wearily.

Sev finished his coffee and stood up "Well, thanks for the adviceSamson. It's been a pleasure meeting you and Betty again." Sev sighed "Look, I might not make it to the end of this contract so I'll say it now: Thanks for everything Samson." With that Sev turned to leave.

"Your welcome boy, your welcome…"

Out o the street Sev brushed the single tar out of his eye before heading back to Avarice for real.

AVARICE'S HIDEOUT

"Sev!" The twin shouts immediately dispelled Sev's misery as he saw Jade and Ally at the door to Avarice's Hideout.

Sev smiled and walked up to the pair "Have fun playing teacher" Sev asked, unable to restrain the grin. Jade smiled back and backhanded Sev with a loud crack. "Oww, that stung" Sev said, rubbing his cheek, it didn't hurt that much but it was unexpected _'you probably deserved that'_, Ally was doubled over with laughter behind Jade.

"The brave mercenary beaten up by a girl! Ha, wait until my friends hear about this one!" Ally managed to say through her laughter.

"Have we had enough fun at my expense?" Sev asked in mock-irritation. "Let's go inside" as the walked in Sev put his arms around Jade's shoulders and whispered "I'm gonna get you for that" in a playful tone.

Even though Sev was holding her Jade didn't respond. Her mind was far away.

_She knelt on the hard durasteel platform, towering above her was a massive, four armed statue, a robe covering its body and it's face hidden behind a veil. A voice issued from the statue even though it's mouth did not move "Shauni, Shauni, listen to me. I am your master"_

"_You are my master, what is your bidding?" Jade asked the statue obediently, she was eager to serve._

_The mental orders appeared directly in her mind, showing her what she had to do. An anguished shout from the back of her soul came through, she silenced it instantly. There could be no room for distraction. The master had called and she would obey._

"_Come to me Shauni…"_

"Jade!" Sev said, she looked pale and was staring off into the distance.

"Hm?" Jade was startled out of the vision of the statue. "What happened?" She asked, dazed.

"You just went into some sort of trance and started muttering something about someone called Shauni. Who's that?" Sev asked pointedly.

"Just…just something from, from when I first fought the Alpha Sections" Jade lied, she knew perfectly well who Shauni was, Shauni was the entity which resided inside her, Shauni was her true identity.


	7. Shauni

Chapter 7: Shauni

"Upon those who bring the darkest nights, we will bring an even darker night, a night where even bright light of one's soul shall be snuffed out…forever. On Hillys where this dark prevails in the form of the so called 'IRIS network' we will do whatever is necessary to return Hillys to a state of stability which all its citizens deserve and which the IRIS Network seeks to destroy. Thank you"-Matthias Kane, Judicator of the Shadowknight Sect.

KOTOPAXI SYSTEM-Antares High Orbit-_Icarus_-21/9/2435

'This is a medical emergency!" Sev snapped at Ground Control "I've got a guy here in Zero-Tau who can't be taken out or he'll die from internal bleeding, do you get that! He's stuck in Zero-Tau!" Which was an outright lie, as Hub was standing right next to him, sore and sorry but otherwise fine. Avarice had given him a (illegal) prescription of nano-meds to tie up the loose ends and get Hub's systems back online. Jade had thought that it showed that even the worst of people could still be kind, _'She wasn't the one who found the nano-meds on their account'_ Sev grumbled to himself, but no-one cared about the beating his account took from Avarice's 'generosity' Jade had given Hub a kiss on the cheek when he finally woke up and Ally seemed to like him. At any other time Sev may have had a slight twinge of jealousy at the attention Hub was getting from Jade but Hub had come within an inch of death and Sev was more interested in abusing Ground Control at the moment.

"Please transmit your Id code and registration" Ground Control said,

"Fine, here. Now can we land" Sev asked in an irritated tone after sending the requested information. Ground Control had been giving him the run-around for the past half hour because he had come from the Borderworlds and some pirate convey shipping a load of Perozen, an illegal mutagen used in black market gen-modifying was supposed to be coming through soon.

"Well this looks clean, you're…frag we got incoming ships!" Ground Control said, in the background Sev heard someone shout 'It's the mutagen convoy!' That was not good; black market traders usually destroyed any ship that they came across.

_Icarus' _sensors picked up six ships coming out of hyperspace, Sev swung the yacht around so he could see them, all three were Akamari class light cargo ships, a long, mostly hollow cylinder about 120 metres long pushed along by a trio of engines. The design's large amount of free space not only allowed a surprising amount of cargo to be fitted but also a left space for a rather heavy weapons complement. Sev sent power to the weapons grid and heard the beeps as the combat sensors targeted the three Akamaris. A split second later the combat sensors announced that one of the Akamris had locked _Icarus_ into its targeting computer. Sev pulled the ship to port, doing a from-stop sideways barrel roll, barely dodging the salvo of shells the Akamari flung at him. Sev returned the compliment, nailing the firing stud on his control column and unleashing _Icarus_' autocannons in a white-lit hail of Guass accelerated HE tungsten slugs. The slugs found their mark, pummeling into the Akamari's hull and tearing out a reasonable crater. The Akamari returned fire, a salvo of dumbfire rockets. Sev hammered the throttle and _Icarus_ tore towards the Akamari, easily dodging the hail of rockets. As he came over the Akamari's bow he read the name painted on the side: _Korbos_, at the same time as he cut the engines, letting his yacht drift over _Korbos' _bow and lining up his guns to strafe the ship's bow. His slugs made contact with the fuel cell for a maneuvering thruster, blowing a huge hole in the side of the cargo ship. He engaged the yacht's maneuvering thrusters to dodge the return salvo of three laser beams from _Korbos_. Sev switched the main engines back online and punched in a new code on his weapons console. On _Icarus' _hull, just below the wings on both sides, a pair of panels about a metre long slid back. Out of the new holes slide two long frames like a wine racks, they each held twelve Garrison Mk.43 Ship-to-Ship missiles. Sev flew low over the cargo ship's hull; firing bursts from his autocannons and tearing holes in the hull, every now and then a pillar of fire would show that he'd hit something important. he reached the ship's tail and swung to face back down the length of the cargo ship. Cutting his engines he drifted backwards towards _Korbos' _engine tubes. _Icarus_ passed over the engine tubes, now behind the cargo ship, Sev launched four missiles straight down the upper engine tube. The effect was instant, the missiles exploded in the tube, destabilizing the ships reactor and causing it to overload in a matter of seconds. The first explosion blew the rear third of the ship to shreds. The second, third, fourth and fifth blew huge pieces of the ship apart until a final explosion demolished what was left of the Akamari class cargo ship.

"Incoming message." _Icarus' _onboard computer reported.

"Its from…General Kheck!" Jade read, leaning on Sev's shoulder.

"Kheck! I thought you said he was dead!" Hub said, alarmed.

"He was, but he's back now" Jade told Hub calmly.

"Let's see what he wants," Sev said mostly to himself. He pressed the button to allow the message through.

"Mister Caravera, how nice to see you again," General Kheck said, his face distorted on the small screen but his booming voice echoing through the whole ship.

"What do want Kheck?" Sev asked warily. He didn't know Kheck but he was smart enough to know that Kheck was dangerous.

"To pay you the reward you demanded for bringing Miss Jade in. Don't you remember? I have a record of our agreement here" Kheck said, smiling. "I'll play it for you"

Sev watched in horror as Kheck hit the play button on a nearby console. His voice was unmistakable.

"PLAYING RECORDING AA5594301-AX21344"

"You wanted to see me" Sev's voice came through the cockpit speakers.

"Yes Mr. Caravera, we have a very delicate assignment for you"

"What is it this time, I'm not playing hired killer again"

"Nothing so crude, you've heard of a Jade on Hillys"

"Yeah, she blew the cover on your little op with the DomZ something good"

"Well I want you to bring her to me, the Alpha Sections have her. Break her out and bring her to me"

"That's all you want Kheck? Break into an Alpha prison, bust out a high security prisoner and then get her to the guy who tried to kill her?"

"That's it essentially, how you go about it is up to you, that's part of your contract with us isn't it?"

"That's right. How much do I get for this?"

"We are offering you 500k, 200 up front plus the rest in installments as you complete the contract's objectives: 100 for finding Jade, 100 for escaping with her, 100 for bringing her to me."

"All right, I'll do it"

"A pleasure doing business with you Mr. Caravera"

"I'll meet you with Jade above Antareson the twenty-first of the ninth"

"We have a deal"

"END RECORDING"

Sev slowly reached for his S.A.C and summoned up his Desert Eagle, his hand closed around thin air. The gun was pressed against the back of his head; a metallic click confirmed that the safety was off.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you now" Jade said in a broken voice, Sev's revealed treachery had hit her right in the heart.

The Comms channel was still open "Trouble in paradise Mr. Caravera? This is a long way from holding her in your arms isn't it? Transfer them over now, or you all die, this ship's weapons are trained or your yacht, Force 9 Plasma Cannons, they will vaporize your ship with a single salvo."

"You'll have to catch me first" Sev replied before cutting the channel. With lightning speed he hit a button and the internal gravity shut off. Everyone except Sev, who was strapped into his chair, suddenly became airborne. Sev used the chance to purge the atmosphere from the cabin and jump out before anyone had a chance to react.

DEEP SPACE-The Cradle Research Station-Landing Bay-3/10/2435

There isn't a lot in the void between galaxies, that's why it's called Deep Space. It is the true void, not like space in between planets or systems, out in Deep Space there isn't even a speck of dust to be found. Which is why the Ticonderoga Corporation set up The Cradle out in Deep Space in an orbit following the Orion Arm over three trillion parsecs out.

Sev looked over what was left of The Cradle, certainly a lot less than when he had last visited the cursed place. It was mostly a low, squat rectangle main section with various antennae and small modules attached to the sides, a trapezium shaped module of the same dimensions as the main section itself was connected to The Cradle via a tube painted the same flat white as the rest of the station. Sev flew towards this section while checking a readout on one of his monitors, it was showing the condition of his three passengers. Fine, he had placed hem in the crew cabin and then injected an anesthetic into the atmosphere to keep them under. Sev returned his attention to The Cradle, he put his ship down in the small docking bay, empty but for a few floating crates, pieces of wreckage and an abandoned jumpship in the corner. No atmosphere outside, the docking bay was open to the vacuum. Sev pulled on a space suite at the airlock and walked out to meet his waiting fate. A fate that had watched him and stalked him since he last visited the cradle and activated the Columbus Project.

Jade regained consciousness about an hour after Sev left to find herself on a warm, comfortable bed with a video disk placed on her chest. She moaned and dragged herself out of the bed, grabbing the videodisk as she got up. Jade noticed that she had a slight headache, a dry mouth and felt mildly sick. Ignoring her problems she blinked to clear her eyes and saw Hub, Pey'j and Ally lying in the other beds staring at her.

"What happened" Pey'j slurred, confused.

"Sev, he betrayed us. He did a deal with Kheck and all this time we thought he was working for us." Jade snapped, conscious enough to be angry and betrayed _'And heartbroken' _she admitted privately, but she wasn't going to share the fact that she loved the man who had played them all for fools.

"What's on that disk?" Pey'j asked as he pulled his bulk out of bed.

"I don't know, let's find out" Jade said "There's a computer here that plays disks. Jade powered the computer up and slid the disk in.

"PLAYING RECORDING 1"

The screen flickered to life and Sev appeared on the screen, the recording had obviously been made while Sev was trying to fly the ship.

"Well everyone, I won't ask for forgiveness. You heard Kheck's recording, I was working for the Alphas all along. Why did I do it? You should know, I'm a mercenary, I take the highest bid and I don't ask questions." Sev sighed and looked at one of the monitors as if he couldn't look them in the eye, even on the recording "It's the worst thing I've done in my life. Let me tell you all something, Ally you know we're Furions but the other won't. That's right Jade, Hub, Pey'j I am a Furion. One who has dishonoured our family name. To that extent, for what I've done and because of what must be done I have brought us to The Cradle. The research station you all used to tell ghost stories to each other at night about. Well its real and we're onboard it. Launch as soon as you can, before this place gets us as it has probably got me by the time you watch this. That is all I can say about The Cradle, whatever you do, do not leave the ship, because it will probably be the last thing you do. By now I am probably dead, or knowing Columbus, worse." Without warning Sev ended the recording.

"So he's gone out into The Cradle." Ally whispered, "He'll die."

"Good riddance" Pey'j growled.

"I think we should leave" Hub said, for the first time ever, Jade thought he sounded scared. Well he might as well be, The Cradle has been a horror story since the first sentient races. Not without good reason, to sum up the inherent terror of The Cradle takes a few words to describe and a first hand experience to understand. Onboard The Cradle, reality has no meaning and what happens to those foolish enough to travel beyond the docking bay is purely the will of The Cradle and Columbus.

THE CRADLE-Lab 4

Sev had been living on The Cradle for about two days, scavenging food from the massive station and living in a lean-to made from scavenged sheet metal. It was on the second day that he stumbled upon the ominously named Lab 4, then again when The Cradle was concerned anything was fairly ominous. He managed to get the door open and too a look inside. A central walkway flanked by two pits about a metre deep and filled with various pieces of scientific equipment. Banks of computers were on every wall were computer banks, many of which were shut down or smashed the few that were still operating were stuck in constant status report cycles. At the far end inside a smashed tube labeled 'Quarantine Chamber' with the sub heading 'Do not open under any circumstances' was an organic looking cocoon, vaguely reminiscent of a DomZ meteor. But that was impossible, the cocoon was very coffin shaped, but with rounded edges and a bulging exterior. Organic tubes along its surface pulsated, lit by an inner purple glow. Without hesitation Sev marched up to it his boots crunching over the broken shards of shield-glass. He put his hand on th orb in the centre of the lid.

"_You have returned, it has happened" _the cocoon said into his mind. It was like a million voices at once, but at the same time there was only one individual voice that spoke to him.

"_Just as you said it would" _Sev replied in his mind. This was where he had gained his skill at telepathic communication.

"_I know all, it is time to accept your fate Severus"_

"_I know"_

"_Come then, into my loving embrace, you will never know loneliness again Severus. You will never be alone again, you will be part of me and we will be part of you" _With that the cocoon's lid melted away, Sev turned to face away from it and closed his eyes. Unseen tentacles reached out and wrapped themselves around his body. He felt himself leave the floor and then come down again, then, nothing…

"_It is done, awake Severus, awake as one of us." _

Sev opened his eyes, instantly he knew that The Cradle was right. It had been done. He looked around; he was in the shower of the worker's living quarters. A big, long room with several rows of heads and not much else, there was a line of floor to ceiling mirrors on one wall, Sev examined his new appearance in one. His face was nearly featureless. Almost as if a mask had been placed over his head that molded itself to the contours of his face. His beard and eyebrows were gone, his skin mottled black like old paint on a brick wall and his eyes a glowing DomZ green. His hair floated around him of its own volition like he was under water. He was clad in a tattered robe and tunic that seemed like part of his body, though both were rippling. Sev examined his hands. The same black, it was then that he noticed a black cloud surrounding him and the fact that there were five strips of cloth hovering behind him, three were floating around his sleeves, rings of cloth with the strips attached, no seams visible. The other two were attached to his robe just below his shoulder blades. His sword remained unchanged but it appeared that the nano-sheath had melded with his back, or his skin had grown over the nano-sheath. He drew the sword, it was untouched. Then he noticed another sword, he drew that, unlike his sickle-like sword it was curved like a slithering snake. _"What am I?" _Sev asked.

"_You are a Shade, like us" _Came a whispered feminine voice into Sev's mind.

Sev spun around, cloth tails flailing behind. A female Shade was standing in the doorway, backed by a wall of other Shades. _"How many of you are there?" _Sev asked the female, who seemed to be the leader.

"_We are one thousand, the entire original crew, the replacement and all others who have docked. Except for those you arrived with, they were free of taint, free to leave." _The Shade answered.

"_What are we?" _Sev asked, despite this horrific twist, eager for details.

"_We are the cursed." _

Sev walked out, brushing past the other Shades and leaving a trail of black cloud in his wake.

"You can't ignore us forever."

Sev kept on walking.

SALVAGE SHIP BURKE & WILLS-Bridge

Vassily "Skipper" Baronovich stood on the bridge of his salvage tug _Burke & Wills _surveying the mysterious station through the transparisteel bridge canopy. His whole crew was on the bridge, with the exceptions of Sparky and Hodges, the ship's engineers. "Bring us in, try to find an airlock" He ordered he ordered in a thick Russian accent.

"No problem" Kristie replied from the pilot station.

Skipper checked over everyone else, like many other ships _Burke & Wills _Bridge was semicircular with the crew stations along the walls and the captain's chair on an elevated platform in the centre of the bridge. The bridge was lit a dark blue, with extra lighting coming from the banks of computers and the lights above each crew station indicating that it was manned. Skipper pressed the intercom button and spoke into it and to his crew at the same time "We're coming into dock all stations sound off"

"Piloting go"

"Scanners go" Sketch called out

"Weapons armed and dangerous" Skayd reported

"Engineering running at 100" Sparky said over the intercom

"Hyperspace engineering reports good to go" Hodges chimed in, again over the intercom.

"I have an airlock, initiating procedures" Kristie announced

"Inform our guest that we have arrived" Skipper ordered.

ARMEN SYSTEM-Prarie-City 1-Delta Bay Hotel

Pey'j waddled down the corridor to Jade's room; she had been in there ever since they got back. She was seriously upset over the mercenary's betrayal of them, more so than Pey'j would have thought seeing as he was just a mercenary. "Jade" Pey'j buzzed on the room's intercom "I brought you some breakfast sweetheart". He tried the door; it swung open easily to reveal an empty room. Jade was nowhere in sight and the window as open. There was a note stuck to the wall by a kitchen knife Pey'j ripped it off and read it.

'Pey'j if your wondering where I've gone, don't come after me. I'm going back to The Cradle to find Sev. I don't know what will happen, whether I kill him or not I'll decide when I confront him for myself. Again please don't come after me.

Love, Jade

Pey'j turned, left the room and went to talk to Hub

THE CRADLE-Airlock 13

Skipper watched their mysterious guest take a look around. Their was obviously a woman, he had guessed that much by her muffled European voice and the way she walked but beyond that he had no idea who she was. She was wearing a scarf around her face, a black cap and dark glasses, so he had no idea what her face looked like. She also had a traveling cloak over a green jacket, armour-vest and green trousers with a pattern that was covered up by armoured pads. What Skipper did know was that she was not to be trifled with, the woman carried herself with an air of strength and inherent courage, that and the massive Desert Eagle on display on her belt. She had said her name was 'Ms. Carver' but Skipper was certain it was a false name.

Jade pulled the scarf, hat and glasses off her face and shook her hair out of her eyes. "Thanks guys, I'll take it from here" she said.

"We'll be right here" Skipper said. He wasn't worried about the things people said lived on The Cradle, he had a Mack-23 Guass rifle that fired ten millimetre HE slugs to deal with them and they could always leave if thing got too hot.

Sev heard the word pass through the psychic web that ran through The Cradle.

"_Visitors!"_

"_Here, Airlock 13"_

"_New members"_

"_Sustenance!" _

"_Show Me," _He asked, a Shade in the airlock granted Sev access to what he was seeing. Sev observed the scene through the other Shade's eyes. Jade! She was here! But what did she want? _'Probably come to finish me off' _Sev thought. Then an order came from The Cradle.

"_We have been so long without sustenance, now these fools have landed here! Absorb them!" _The Cradle roared into every Shade's mind. As Sev watched through the psychic web the Shades hastened to obey. _'Can I let this happen, to Jade, to the woman I love?'_ The answer was obvious. Sev started sprinting towards Airlock 13, drawing his swords as he ran.

Jade sensed trouble a moment before it came, a mysterious, ragged ghoul leapt out of the shadows at her, it sailed closer twin daggers in its hands and hunger in its eyes. A black shape flashed at the corner of her vision another ghoul slammed into the first, sending the pair crashing across the room. The first ghoul slammed into the wall while the second slid into a low squat. It stood up and sliced the other ghoul's head off with a sickle-like sword. The ghoul dissolved into ash. The other ghoul turned to face Jade and taking her in with vivid glowing eyes. Then in a growling British accent said, "Run the other Shades are already here".

Sev turned to face the door at the far end as Shades poured out. A voice echoed inside his head.

"_Stop! If you leave you will never be one of us! You will be alone again!"_

"_Go to hell fragbait" _Sev snarled in his mind as he turned and sprinted towards the airlock, it started to close. Sev dived through it and the airlock slammed shut behind him, he got up and sprinted through the other airlock.

_BURKE & WILLS _BRIDGE

"Go go go! Get us the frag outta here!" Skipper roared at Kristie as he sprinted to his chair and strapped in.

"I'm goin as fast as I can Skip'" Kristie snapped.

The intercom burst to life and a growling English voice came through "Get this goddamn ship in the air, they've got the fraggin' airlock open." The intercom went dead.

AIRLOCK

Sev slashed the heads of a pair of Shades and kicked a third one back down the airlock, it flew back and took out another two Shades. Jade impaled another on the end of her staff, which Sev noted had a long, curved blade strapped to each end, she kicked it off and decapitated it. For a mercenary it was only slightly chilling to see someone who was usually so gentle killing without any outward sign of remorse. As far as Sev was concerned it was a good thing. He quickly sliced another Shade in half and decapitated it. Another leapt passed him, Sev sheathed a sword and summoned a Shuriken from where his S.A.C used to be and flicked it at the Shade, the spinning, bladed disk sliced through the Shade's neck before returning to Sev's hand. He flung the Shuriken down the corridor, it sliced through five Shades on the way down and got another three as it returned to his hand. Sev impaled another's chest, sliced upwards and cut its head off and split another from head to foot, the rest of the Shades retreated, but not before Jade caught one o the end of her staff, pulled it to the ground and sliced its head in half. The airlock door rumbled shut and the ship detached from The Cradle. Three minutes later _Burke & Wills _engaged its hyperdrive and shot into hyperspace on a course for Prarie.

HYPERSPACE LANE TO THE ARMEN SYSTEM-4/10/2534

Sev sat alone in the salvage ship's sealed cargo bay listening to the babble of voices inside his head. They had locked him in here and planned to hand him over to the nearest zoo on Prarie probably.

"_Severus, you have been judged, your fate no longer binds you, be burned of all that defines your fate"_

At once flakes of Shade skin started falling of Sev and gradually the entire shell of black skin dissolved and left Sev standing in the middle of a pile of ash, fully back to normal. Just at that moment the door burst open and Sev found himself face to face with the meaty weapons officer Scayd, who had a Mag-12 Automatic Shotgun aimed at Sev's head "where's the freak?" he snarled.

"Gone"

"Don't frag with me! I got a really big gun here!" Scayd snapped.

Sev's arm shot up like lightning and hit the gun out of Scayd's hands, it spun in the air and landed in Sev's hand. He quickly brought it to bear on Scayd's head "Now, this is a real long story that I not in the mood for telling so lets just pretend that none of this ever happened." Sev hissed "Now, take me to the captain…"

The story took just a few minutes to explain and by the end of it Skipper was wearing a doubtful expression.

"With all respect Caravera that's a load of fragging brayg" Skipper said.

"Do I looking like I'm telling a fragging lie Mon Capitan?" Sev shot back.

"Well frankly Caravera yes you do, and I'm throwing your butt back in the cargo bay…"

ARMEN SYSTEM-Prarie-City 1-Delta Bay Hotel-5/10/2435

For the second time in as many days Sev found himself with a gun to his head, this time it was Hub with a rusty old F-23 Lever Action Shotgun and Jade with a Desert Eagle.

"Tell us why we shouldn't just blow your head off" Pey'j asked in a tone that said he didn't need a reason.

"One, the cops wont take kindly to it, seeing as it will look like an unprovoked murder and two, I locked _Icarus_ down and changed all the codes, your stuck here. Let me go and we'll meet on Hillys" Sev explained to the group.

"And why pray tell would we do that?" Pey'j asked angrily.

"Don't you want the war on your home planet to end?" Sev asked, it was a rhetorical question "I'm going to Hillys and I'll kill you and escape if I have to, once I get there General Kheck will die"

"You're not going anywhere son" Pey'j told him

"Oh I'm not?"

"That's right, I'm not going let to let you go"

Sev took a quick glance around the room before answering, "I doubt you have much choice" He programmed a Stun grenade in the S.A.C and called it out, the grenade fell to the floor. He used the distraction to leap away and cover his ears. The blast was little more than a white flash and a dull thump, when Sev got up Jade, Hub and Pey'j were lying unconscious on the floor. He dropped a bank card on Jade and left for the hangar. A sort while later _Icarus _blasted off, flew into space and shot off on a hyperspace vector for Hillys…

HILLYS-Seaview-Freeport Apartments-7/10/2435, Night

The whole thing had been ridiculously easy, a quick trip, land and hide the ship, rent out this dingy little apartment right next to the courtyard where Kheck was due to give his speech to all the Alpha Section Garrison in Seaview. _'You really should tighten up security Kheck'_ Sev thought as he looked down the scope of his AMG 2435 Edition High Velocity Sniper's Rifle (it was known as the AMG "Headhunter"). The courtyard was a massive open space with buildings on all sides, all of them showing the ravages of war, one was even missing its roof, a fire burning furiously there the huge, a wood platform spanned the entire courtyard and a podium was set in the middle of it with Kheck standing behind it, behind Kheck was a monstrous Alpha Section flag _'the overall effect must look quite dramatic from all those hover cams'_. His huge, metre long rifle sat on a bipod on the open window of his apartment, Sev centred his sights on Kheck as the old General ranted on, he put his sights over Kheck's head and waited for the nanites in the barrel to perfect the travel path, the icon lit up green on the scope and Sev started to squeeze the trigger…

STREET LEVEL

Through some miracle Jade, Hub and Pey'j had found a fast ship to take them back to Hillys, they had arrived and made their way through the city to the cortyard just in time for the show. Jade's superior eyesight courtesy of Shauni picked out the black barrel and shadowy figure standing in the darkened room, Sev was about to follow through and kill Kheck in the next few seconds…

SEV'S APARTMENT

Sev squeezed the trigger all the way down; there was a loud crack and the rifle slammed into his shoulder with all its considerable recoil. The bullet streaked towards Kheck's head…

PODIUM

The bodyguard knew it was too late, by the time he had turned to see where the shot had come from it had slammed into Kheck, lifting the General up and flinging him like a rag doll across the first five ranks of Alphas and raining blood and bits of Kheck's skull and brain on them as it crashed through the back of Kheck's head and vanished into the night…

STREET LEVEL

Jade gasped at the destruction the single round had caused, had the bullet been any bigger it would have taken Kheck's head off, it had been satisfied with blasting in through the front of his head and out the back. She felt sick at the amount of blood and she was only starting to realize what Sev was capable of, and what he was fully capable of would chill even the coldest of people to the very bone…

BACKSTREET

Sev sprinted down the street, stowing the AMG Headhunter in his nano-sheath in the place where the Morita usually went. He walked out behind Jade's group and drew his Dryson A-12 Autopistol just in case. "Surprise" He said.

Jade jumped and spun in midair, her now-bladed staff was in her hands before she hit the ground. She relaxed it was only Sev but Hub drew his shotgun and as it came down he flicked the safety off. Sev was faster, the Autopistol shot up and barked, kicking back and delivering a single round. The bullet smacked into the wall just next to Hub, he lowered the shotgun and held it one handed.

Sev lowered the Autopistol and said "unless you want the Alphas to find you we'd better get to a hiding place."

"And you're gonna take us to one, you'd probably turn us in!" Pey'j snarled.

"With my employer dead my contract is null, my only contract is with you now." Sev said calmly.

"We don't want your contract Sev, I can…I can forgive you if you promise never to do something like this again, do you know what effect this has had?" Jade said seriously, she was fighting a war inside herself, her heart against her mind _'He betrayed you!'_ her mind said _'but you love him' _was her heart's opinion, she decided to listen to her heart.

"What, but Jade he betrayed us!" Pey'j turned on Jade "Now your just gonna let him come crawling back to you! Are you crazy?"

Sev dropped to his knee "I swear it on my life, kill me now if you don't believe me"

"That will do Sev, get up and lets go" Jade said, the others walked past Sev, ignoring him but Jade walked right up to him and looked up at him. "Now tell me, were you serious or are you just playing us for fools again?"

Sev looked back down at Jade; there was an intensity in her eyes so strong he couldn't look at her for any longer, he dropped his eyes "Yes, I'm honest this time."

"Good" Jade replied, sge walked past Sev, giving him the cold shoulder. "Let's go, we probably shouldn't get caught here with the Alphas like this…."

AKUDA BAR-IRIS Den

"We have a new problem people," Hahn said from the cushion under the massive screen on the wall. "The Alpha Sections have reinforcements, some sect called the ShadowNights."

"Frag" Sev said in surprise "That's bad, ShadowNights."

"You've worked for them before?" Hahn asked.

"No but they tried to get me to join them, they don't 'hire' mercs as such. They pretend to have a contract, have you meet them a a specific place where you're kidnapped, tortured into submission, convinced them that the sect is the one true path to salvation and used as suicide bombers." Sev recounted what he knew "They got as far as trying to kidnap me before I decided religion wasn't my thing."

"Charming" Mei said sarcastically.

"I know what've they got with them?"

"Well it seems that the ShadowNights are planning to perform an orbital 'Cleansing' of Hillys That's what we got from hacked comm. channels anyway." Nino added

"He means orbital bombardment" Sev cut in. "What sort of weapons have they got?"

"Again from what we've deciphered they're going to use orbital C-Beam Cannons" Nino again answered Sev's question.

"My god they'll kill everything on the planet!" Sev barked in shock, the ShadowNights were psychos but this…this was beyond anything they'd ever done before.

"Sev, you have more knowledge of the ShadowNights than anyone else in this room, we need you to devise a plan to stop them. Can you do it?" Hahn asked.

"C-Beam equipped ships, they're Capital Class weapons so there can't be anymore than a couple of Cap ships, probably frigates plus fighter support. Fighters don't carry hyperdrives so one squadron per ship. That makes at least twenty-four fighter plus the frigates. That'll need fighters and torp bombers." Sev mused, muttering to himself. "Does Hillys have any cap ships?" He asked.

"No, the Alphas destroyed them all, why do you ask?" Hahn asked perplexed.

"We have to stop them before they get to Hillys, so the only way we can do that is to fight them from space, give me four squadrons of your best pilots and ships and one squadron of torp bombers and we can pull this off. Maybe…"

IRIS HANGAR 20KM SOUTH OF SEAVIEW-6/10/2435

Sev looked over the motley array of fighters and in the hangar, twenty-four in total and a mix of Hillyan BF-120 Shrike 2s, Atlas-built P-92 Warhammers, F-109 Strikefighters from Omega Eridani and a single MIG-240 Arctic Wolf and a single GF-250 Hammerhead, the last two apparently belonging to the Squadron Leaders Happy and Wilco. The torp bombers were mostly ancient BF-4000 Thunderheads and a couple of newer BF-4200 Thunderhead IIs one of which belonged to the Squadron Leader Thunderpants.

The ShadowNight ships had emerged from hyperspace the earlier that day and were now making their way towards Hillys using conventional Ion Engines and Starlight drives due to the dangers of navigating in hyperspace through a warzone, which was like trying to walk through a minefield blindfolded. So that was why the little holographic cruisers on the massive holoprojector were moving through realspace. It was worse than Sev had though, an Absolution Class Cruiser, two Pertinence Class Frigates, five squadrons of Grail Class Medium Fighters and a squadron of Crusader Class Heavy Fighters. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, as you can see the ShadowNights are bringing in a heavy cruiser and two light frigates plus fighter escort. Here's the plan" as Sev spoke the hologram added new icons for the Hillyan squadrons, the fighter icons swirled and one by one the ShadowNight fighter icons vanished, then Thunderpant's icon appeared and torpedoed the cap ships. Meanwhile Sev spoke "First the fighters, Wilco, Happy, Sketch and Mac, take down the enemy fighters quickly and stay out of range of the cap ships PDLs or they'll slice you to pieces. Once that's done the fighters are to dance in an out of range of the PDLs, keep the gunners distracted, this is where Thunderpants comes in" He looked to Thunderpants "You and your squadron torpedo the cap ships"

"Right" the dark skinned Wilco confirmed

"Roger"

"Let's hit it"

"No problemo"

"Tag 'em an' frag 'em" the bulky Torpedo bomber pilot said.

"To your ships" Sev said, the group broke up and every pilot headed to his or her ship, saying what was probably their last goodbye to loved ones along the way. Sev marched over to _Icarus _intent on getting airborne before anyone tried to say anything. Unfortunately he hadn't remembered to finish putting a circuit board in the engine and so dropped his green jacket to the ground and used it as a pillow while he touched up the weld points and replaced the service hatch. He fitted the armour plate over that, got up and found himself face to face with Jade. He looked at her for a few seconds then said, "I'll try to get blown up, at least someone will feel better."

"You're still under contract right?" Jade asked, a hint of impishness and a hint of seriousness.

"Technically, you never cancelled my contract." Sev answered.

"Well, as part of your contract, you come back alive okay" jade said, trying to be serious, but it was clear that she was scared. Space combat was incredibly dangerous and almost always resulted in heavy casualties among smaller ships, and Sev's yacht was not that much bigger than a fighter.

"I have my doubts that anyone else would agree with you, I'm the traitor remember?" Sev pointed out.

"Well, I'm the one everyone listens to, they'll come around to my way of thinking soon." Jade said confidently.

"Which is?" asked Sev.

"That you made a mistake, you know that, you offered us a chance to kill you and have revenge. What does that tell you?" Jade countered.

"That your to noble for your own good." Sev hoped he had the last word this time and it looked like he had.

"It tells you that despite that you trying to hide it, you're a good person, you're a noble, aren't you supposed to be good or something" Jade stated, it was true. With the noble blood of the Caravera family running through Sev's veins he was both genetically inclined and honour-bound to be this way.

"I'll think about it" Sev grunted as he made his way up _Icarus' _ramp.

"Hey wait!" someone shouted, Sev spun around. A young woman with long black hair and a flight suit was walking up to him. "You can't go into combat with that thing." She stated bluntly

"Why not?" Sev asked defensively.

"Because it's a Yacht, sure it can shoot but you need something with a little more kick." She pointed out, something that was perfectly true, the yacht was a competent anti-fighter platform but would be shredded against cap ships. She turned and Sev followed "By the way, I'm Mandy, callsign Raven" The woman introduced herself. She showed him to where her squadron was parked "I've got a spare F-107 StarCrow if you want it, she's kind of old but she's fast and deadly."

"I flew a StarCrow when I was sixteen, but I'll take it" Sev answered, the StarCrow was an old fighter developed some hundred years ago and due to the rugged design had been around ever since. It was had a thin, triangular body with convex flanks and huge engine blocks attached at the tail, each one hold four main engines in a triangular configuration, four wings lead off at diagonals each one holding a long barreled autocannons. On the mounting for the engines were built in pods firing Barrage-IV rockets, the StarCrow carried additional missiles on its wings. This one was armed with eight Starseeker-22 Dogfighting missiles, four Gargoyle FFAR pods and four Medusa FFAR pods. Sev climbed in, powered up and followed the fleet of fighters to meet their fate

IRIS DEN

Jade stood alone in the IRIS HQ, watching the small red and green blips draw closer to each other.

"Shauni"

She spun around, heart thumping. The room was empty.

"Shauni, obey me"

Against her will Jade opened a comm. channel to the ShadowNight ships, she wached, terror coursing through her but utterly useless to stop the invading force taking control of her body.

"Tell them Shauni"

She obeyed, began transmitting the strength and plan of Sev's desperate defense to the incoming ships. Telling them everything about the ambush lying in wait.

_SALVATION_, Absolution Class Cruiser

Commander Revan Stone read through the datastream his ship had just received. _'So the heretics are trying to stop us eh? Trying to ambush us like the cowards they are, well, we'll have our own ambush waiting for them'_ smiling, he began dispensing orders to the fleet, ready to turn the approach vector of the Hillyan defenders into a kill zone…


	8. Solar Flare

Chapter 8: Solar Flare

"Never fly straight and level for more than 30 seconds in the combat arena"- The Ten Rules of Air Combat, Adolf 'Sailor' Malan Earth-1941

ASTEROID & DEBRIS FIELD-Sev's Starcrow

The large Heavy Fighter banked and soared past the blasted hulk of an old freighter, its glowing blue vapour trails soaring fifty kilometers behind. At the Starcrow's wings were the four fighter squadrons flying a Delta within a Delta formation. Between the fighters were the two squadrons of torpedo bombers also in Delta formation. Sev took the whole flight in between the two halves of an ancient Hillyan destroyer before giving the order to split up and hide in different asteroids or starship wrecks. Through the teardrop canopy Sev watched the incoming ships. Only a few pinpricks of light clustered around them, where was the rest of the Shadowknight's fighter escort?

"This is hotdog I …" The pilot screamed as autocannon rounds tore his ship to pieces. Sev swung the fighter around, an ambush! The Shadowknights knew they were coming; several more screams filled the comm. as the Shadowknight Grail class fighters used their spped to tear up the Hillyan fighters. It was only after another three ships had gone down, including two squadron leaders that the Hillyans finally got their act together. A new battle sprung up around the asteroids and debris, both sides using the huge chunks of drifting rock and durasteel to their advantage. The Grails turned out to be just two squadrons strong and it wasn't long before the last one was destroyed, pinned against the engine block of a million year old superfreighter and demolished by Raven. In return the Hillyans had lost an entire squadron, plus half of another and two torpedo bombers, one of which had been a Squadron Leader. Two more fighters had to turn back due to damage. The weakend group returned to formation and swarmed out from the wreckage. Sev's Starcrow dodged through the incoming hail of Autocannon rounds and returned fire, its four autocannons lighting up Sev's cockpit. The hail of fire demolished a pair of Grails and damaged one badly enough for another fighter to finish it. Though the Shadowknights had capships on their side they had made one mistake: they had sent their fighters out to engage the Hillyans outside the range of their ship's flack guns.

Raven's squadron dived through the fighter and destroyed four Crusaders in a barrage of missiles. Raven single handedly destroyed another three Grails and a Crusader. Wilco and his squadron racked up a string of kills against two squadrons of Grails.

Even Thunderpants managed to get a kill, ambushing a Grail as it tried to escape with a shout of "Yeah chock up one fighter for the Pants!"

Sev pinned a Crusader against Wilco's squadron and it was blown to dust. Raven managed to get another two kills and another shared, Wilco scraped the last kill, a retreating Grail. They lost another five fighters and two torp bombers but the entire Shadowknight fighter group was destroyed. The capships were next; Sev led the charge as the capship flacks lit up. The fighters began evasive maneuvers, dancing in and out of the range of the flack guns to keep the gunners busy. Sev swung his Starcrow back and forth playing the gunners like a snake charmer with his cobra. It was clear that the crew were beginners because they didn't notice the torp bombers flying on stealth mode with Thunderpants in the lead.

THUNDERPANT'S BF-4200

Thunderpants finished his calculations and plugged the firing solution in, green lines lit up on his HUD showing a 98 chance of a kill shot. He armed the torpedoes and dropped out of stealth mode "Fire!' he roared to the other bombers. As one the flight of torp bombers dropped out of stealth mode and fired their torpedoes at the cap ships. The frigates were first to be consumed in fireballs and the cruiser soon followed, destroyed by a combination of torpedoes and damage from its two escorts exploding. Immediately deafening cheering filled every comm. channel on the airwaves.

"Alrighty ladies, lets head home" Thunderpants bellowed over the cheers.

"Roger wilco (Will comply)" Sev replied…

IRIS HANGAR

The flight of battered fighters touched down and was immediately enveloped in crowds of screaming people. Sev managed to land clear of the crowds but was swamped as he climbed down and pulled of his helmet. He pushed past the mob, he wasn't interested in being carried off on their shoulders as several other pilots were, the energy readings from the cruiser indicated that they'd destroyed it mere minutes before it fired…

"Sev!" Ally came sprinting across the hangar, Furion DNA allowing her to reach Sev in just a few seconds. She crashed into her older brother and pulled him into a bearhug. "Sev your alive, I was so scared!"

"You didn't think your big brother couldn't handle himself did you?" Sev grinned; Ally then disappeared to cheer with the crowd. Sev slipped out of the hangar and ran into one solitary figure.

"Hello Sev" Pey'j growled, there was an autopistol in his hand. He brought it up to Sev's chest. Pey'j half-squeezed the trigger and the laser sight lit up. He finalized his aim then with an unmistakable click switched the safety off.

Unfortunately for Pey'j he was getting old, not that being back in his prime would have saved him from a Furion. Sev spun and kicked the autopistol out of Pey'j's hand. As he spun he unsheathed his sword. Sev finished his spin with the sword at Pey'j's chubby neck "You want to kill me pig?" Sev snarled, "You will have to do better than that!"

"Go on, do it if you can!" Pey'j snapped "You broke my little girl's heart, what's to stop you killing an old, unarmed man!"

"Nothing, but I am not going to, pig, pick up your gun and go home!" Sev snapped back. He stalked past Pey'j and made for the bar. Unfortunately Pey'j had obviously brought reinforcements who like him doubted Sev's renewed loyalty. As he stepped into the darkened common room he heard a shout.

"There he is! Kill the traitor!'

A split second later Sev came under a barrage of gunfire. He dived behind a pillar, his photographic memory allowing Sev to perfectly recall the exact layout of the room. He also recalled the location of all the furniture and where any defenders would be located. Sev slithered towards one of those locations, his path aided by the flashes of gunfire. From what he saw and head Sev guessed H&K 500s and SDS-14s, he also heard the crack of a GICW (General Infantry Combat Weapon). Sev reached an overturned table with a pair of IRIS gunmen hiding behind it. They were conserving their ammo until they saw him. Sev right hooked the first one and swung back with this elbow to drop the second gunman. He made his way across the common room without being seen once. Sev decided that he wasn't going to kill anyone, it was acting against his better nature but he decided that he had no right to kill these people for trying to pay him back for what he had done: betray them. _'I'll leave, leave and let this planet fight its own battles' _Sev decided, with that he ripped a grill off an air vent and headed down it towards the tram station that lead to the hangar.

IRIS DEN

"Intruder Alert!"

The alarm jolted Jade out of a deep sleep. She jumped and the movement pushed the wheeled chair she had been sitting in away. Jade crashed to the floor with a thud, she quickly picked herself up and dashed to a console. Jade brought up a camera of the tram station and saw Sev knock the five guards out and jump on a tram. The tram soon sped away, its destination obvious…

TRAM

Sev had already begun making his plans, he would return to life as a Borderworld mercenary. A simple, dirty and most likely short life…

BELUGA HANGAR BAY

Jade raced towards _Beluga's_ grav lift, it had been stored in this IRIS hangar since the Battle of Selene. She floated into the cockpit, raced to the controls and began powering the ship up…

IRIS HANGAR

Sev sped across the hangar bay, ignoring the shouts of the few on duty guards, pilots and mechanics. He sprinted up _Icarus' _ramp and crashed into the pilot's couch. He quickly brought the ship online and, ignoring the shouts of the people on the ground nailed the throttle and sent _Icarus_ roaring out of the Cliffside hangar and into the blue midday sky of Hillys. It took Sev but a few minutes to make it to space. As he calculated a hyperspace vector he set the ship in a geosycn orbit over Seaview. Another few minutes and the scanners alerted him to the presence of an unknown ship.

_BELUGA_

Jade knew _Icarus'_ scanner signature so when she spotted the blip she knew it was Sev. A sudden warning tone brought up a hologram showing an auto warning. Sev had powered up _Icarus' _weapons.

_ICARUS_

Sev locked in the target and readied a pair of _Icarus' _Garrison SAFAMs (Space Anti Fighter Missiles) these were long-range missiles unlike the MK.43 that he normally used. The missiles acquired a lock, Sev reached for the fire button…

_BELUGA_

Jade ignored the missile lock warning as she desperately tried to open a channel to Sev. Eventually she got a 'channel confirmed' message "Sev, its Jade! Don't shoot!"

_ICARUS_

"Sev its Jade! Don't shoot!"

Sev wrenched his hand back from the control column mounted trigger. "Jade!" he replied.

"Yeah its me, what are you doing!" Jade asked unable to keep the worry out of her voice.

"Pey'j just tried to sic a pack of IRIS boys on me. I'm leaving" Sev said shortly, he wanted to get this over with before Jade made it impossible for him to leave.

"No Sev! Don't leave because of him! I'll talk to them! I'll…"

Sev saw it too, another blip on the scanners. This one was identified as a DomZ Battleship. Without warning it fired, the bright green beam lanced out and vaporised _Beluga _in a single shot. Right from the start Sev knew there was no chance Jade could have survived that blast. In a daze he finished his calculations and sent _Icarus_ thundering into hyperspace.

_Icarus is tunneling through hyperspace at the moment. I sit I my cabin, in a state of shock. My grief is beyond tears, beyond anything. I have lost the woman I love, the only thing that gave my life any reason, any_ _worth. So my life has no worth now, I merely exist. I picked up a transmission that the DomZ beamed out across the whole galaxy; they confirmed Jade's death. They also raided the entire Seaview IRIS base, turns out they knew it was there all along. Nearly everyone was killed, I found a copy of the casualty list they sent to the Commonwealth just to taunt the Council. I picked out several names:_

, Nino

, Hahn

, Mei

Wilks, Jericho "Wilko"

??? "Thunderpants"

Caravera, Allysha

Everyone who befriended me is gone. Everyone who took my cold shoulder has been killed. I also picked up another few datastreams, one was from a DomZ undercover agent who released that fact that I was at the base just before the attack as well as my DomZ data file. The other datastream was a twenty trillion galcred price on my head. The Commonwealth has declared me an enemy of the state and every Commonwealth citizen has permission to 'kill me on sight'. So why do I live? I don't plan to, I draw the autopistol from its holster, flick the safety off, pull back the action. Then I pull the trigger…


	9. Part 2 Intro

BEYOND GOOD & EVIL 3

_Nothing happens, nothing but a crunch, I pull the action open. The bullet didn't go off, the cap didn't fire, I suppose I should count myself lucky that I bought a percussion cap gun and not a Gauss one. Slowly I holster the weapon and lie back on my bunk…_


	10. Reborn Intro

REBORN

"My life for my empire, my heart for my love, Mina"-Most famous words of poet Alkern Dorian 2245-2336


	11. Reborn

MAGNOS SYSTEM-Apris-Foundation Starbase-Magnum Bar 2/4/2437

A lone figure reclined against the grimy wall of the Magnum Bar. A brown sleeveless jacket covered a lightweight, similarly sleeveless black shirt. The figure's face was obscured by long black hair that hunh around his shoulders and at the corners of his eyes and pair of reflective black wraparound glasses. On his face could be seen part of a two spiked tattoo and a long scar that ran the length of his cheek. On each shoulder was a ring of ornate tattoos that looped from under his armpits to the middle of his large shoulders and were similar to the one on his face. Another tattoo of a stylized Wolf Spirit was visible on his lower right arm. It was clearly visible that the man was huge and heavily muscled, not the sort of person to mess with. This fact was further confirmed by the hilts of two ornate swords visible over his shoulders, held on a sheath whose strap ran across the figure's chest and stomach. It was Severus Angelo Caravera, outlaw, mercenary, and warrior. The one who had watched his only love killed before his eyes.

Sev looked up as the door to the bar opened, sending a shaft of dust-filled light across the room, two well-dressed people quickly marched in. The taller one was a man with graying hair and a similar beard, he was wearing an immaculate coat with perfectly tailored waistcoat, shirt and trousers. On the outside he looked like some Earth seventeenth century upper class but Sev recognized a fellow soldier. The man carried himself with utmost confidence and Sev could see a small bulge under his coat at the hip that he would have bet the _Daggermouth _on was a weapon. The woman he was with was a hell of a lot younger. Flaming red hair that covered her shoulders and amber tinted reflective glasses like Sev's. She was dressed in a similar style to her companion, old dress, corset, waistcoat and overcoat. Sev picked up the shape of a handgun in her pocket. The two walked quickly so as not to get too much dust on their fine clothes, not that it really mattered, there'd be enough dust everywhere else when they looked. The pair talked quietly to the barman who pointed Sev out, Sev glowered at the barman who gave a 'Do-I-look-like-I-give-a-vrak' look. _'Bastard' _Sev thought at the portly old man, he'd told the old bartender he wanted to be left alone, but he thought he saw the barman slip a credit slip into his pocket _'So that's what my prvacy is worth these days, well I'm a wanted criminal, for a crime I DIDN'T FRAGGING COMMIT!' _Sev felt like screaming it out. The pair sat down at his table with drinks.

"I thought I would take the liberty of buying you a new drink Mr. Caravera," The old man said in a posh, upper crust English accent.

"Sev downed what was left in his glass in one shot, he was drinking too much these days and he had paid for it several times. Three consecutive arrests for drunk and disorderly, and the hangovers in the morning to boot '_My life has gone to hell in a hearse, frag it I've go nothing to live for anyway'_ Sev thought. "Cheers" he said in a growling, gravelly but strong English accent of his own. He took a gulp from the glass, whisky, and waited for Old Man to continue.

"My name is Lord Richard Ashton, this is my daughter Sandra Ashton. We would like to offer you a contract on a most dangerous and deadly adventure. Like they used to write about in the books about the Dark Continent, King Soloman's Mines, that sort of thing." Old Man explained further, Sev was to form part of a guard as the group headed out to explore an ancient, several million-year-old temple that had recently been uncovered on Sahara. Once there he would assist in protecting the researchers as they adventured into the temple and uncovered whatever wonders lay within. "So, are you in?" Ashton asked in a manner that suggested he probably wouldn't take no for an answer.

"How much?" Sev asked bluntly.

"We are willing to offer you five hundred thousand galcreds if you take this assignment" The woman spoke, removing her glasses to reveal crystal eyes. She seemed to get indignant when Sev showed no reaction "Have the decency to remove your glasses when I am talking to you!" she snapped.

'_Upper crust baby, lording over her little realm' _Sev chose to not to remember the fact that he himself was of noble blood and had once looked down upon the ordinary masses of the galaxy the same way his woman was looking down on him. Sev pulled his glasses down his nose, revealing the long scar that ran across his right eye and the tattoo that covered most of the left side of his face. Sandra Ashton recoiled at the sight, but was also drawn in by Sev's emerald green eyes, which bored into her soul, ferreting out any seeds of deceit. Sev slipped his glasses back on, hiding his eyes, scar and tattoo. "Alright, I'm in".

"Excellent, meet us on Sahara in twelve days, that should be enough time for a hyperspace journey if you have a relatively fast craft." Lord Ashton seemed happy and relieved that Sev had decided to come along.

"What do you know about this temple?" Sev asked. For the briefest moment Sev saw a flicker of something in Lord Ashton's eyes, fear. He knew what was in hat temple and he was afraid of it _'that's why he wants me, a mercenary and a Furion to tag along, he thinks with a Furion around he'll be okay' _but the next second it was gone.

"Now, now Mr. Caravera we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for you now would we?"

Sev took that as conversation over, that and the fact that Lord Ashton immediately stood up and left, Sandra Ashton following in his wake.

Sev stayed there for several hours, working on his flight plan. He would need one that took him around any installations that might not take kindly to the _Daggermouth_ appearing; after all it was a one million year old gunship with a Lancaster Rating (The Lancaster Rating is a galaxy wide system used to measure a starship's firepower) equal to a battleship. It was at nine, station time that the attack came. The first blasts threw Sev off his stool along with his PDA. Then came a series of ominous thumps amidst the sounds of a battle going on between the attackers and the station's defense gun turrets. Sev knew any half decently equipped attacker would easily get past the turrets, they were simple Dryson AT-94 Gauss guns mounted in a four barrel revolving dome turret called a 'chrome dome' a reference to the shiny durasteel used to make them and their utterly obsolete nature. Another ten minutes later the bar door slid open again and a frag grenade soared through the air. Sev drew his sword and sliced the table's leg out so it fell over as a shield. The next second the grenade exploded, blasting razor sharp shrapnel across the bar, shredding half a dozen patrons who weren't fast enough and re locating their interiors from inside to outside. Sev pulled himself up to a furious firefight between the occupants of the bar and the invaders. Something strange started grinding at the back of Sev's head, music.

_And I wonder_

_Day to day_

_I don't like you_

_Anyway_

Sev launched over the table and sprinted towards his attackers along the wall, as the first one came through Sev sliced his head in half. He saw from their scruffy clothes, makeshift armour and diverse weapons that this was a gang of pirates.

_I don't need your_

_St to take_

_You're pathetic_

_In your own way_

Sev dropped off the wall and sliced the next pirate in half. Drawing his spare sword Sev leapt into the fray, he impaled two pirates, decapitated a third and with one vicious stab of his katana-like sword impaled a pair of pirates in one go. He launched himself over one pirate and stabbed the unfortunate through the spine. By now the walls were crimson and Sev's sword was slick with the blood of his enemies. He swung again, cutting a pirate in half just under the ribcage and spraying blood over another pirate who was soon cut down by a head to foot swing from Sev, he swung back up and caught the second last pirate as he tried to run. The final one made it half way down the corridor when Sev flung his sword. The razor sharp blade buried itself in the pirate's back and most of its length burst through his ribcage. Sev sprinted forwards, his destination the hangar bay, without even slowing down he yanked his sword from the pirate's corpse.

_Better fkin' go away_

_I will be there yeah_

_You better fkin' go away_

The whole bloody affair had been watched by two figures, sitting alone in a darkened room made of stone. The only light came from the holoprojector they were watching. It showed a long haired, well muscled and athletic figure in a brown jacket and trousers running down a bare metal corridor, killing any pirates he came across in brutal style.

"He is an interesting one isn't he?" one female voice said, the owner of the voice was draped in a black shroud that obscured all of her features except for her incredibly long brown hair.

"You know what I think of him" the other figure, again a woman but with shoulder length black hair and a ponytail that hung half way down her back replied shortly.

"Ah yes, you love him" The hooded woman turned to the other one.

"What's it to you, jealous?" the other one asked. She looked up, revealing her eyes, hidden at that point under a long fringe of jet-black hair. They were vivid green, with a strange, otherworldly inner light that glowed from behind them, like the eyes of a DomZ monster.

"No I am not jealous Shauni, or would you prefer your human name, Jade?"

"I told you to leave that alone! Jade is dead, I am the master of this body now and I need no attachment to that mortal" Shauni snapped.

"But Jade's personality has certainly become a part of you just as much as you were a part of her" The hooded woman replied calmly, deeply amused by Shauni's short temper.

"Jade was simply a carrier, one who has finished her term of service. Yes I carry her soul with me but it is trapped, silenced, Jade is no more than a tool I can use at any time I wish" Shauni tried to regain her advantage

"_Quit while you're ahead" _A spectral voice with a slight European lilt to it floated through Shauni's mind, Jade, her soul.

"_Silence Jade, I am the master now" _Shauni replied iside her mind.

"_You wish, I was always the independent one"_

"_Not anymore"_

"_I'm sending you straight to hell when I'm free fragbait."_

"_How about I send you to hell"_

"_Ohh, good comeback" _Jade taunted.

Shauni blocked out Jade's taunting, the human was trying to make her loose control again. One of the few times when Jade could free herself, she was beginning to be a problem. "I am I the master" Shauni growled, as much to convince her companion as to reassure herself.

The hooded woman simply laughed, Sev was an interesting one, perhaps he could be made to serve her. If he truly believed Jade was dead…

_I'm doin' the best I ever did_

_I'm doin' the best that I can_

_I'm doin' the best I ever did _

Sev ducked under the clumsy swing of yet another pirate and sliced him in half, spraying blood over the wall. He came up and in his motion sliced another pirate from feet to head. Coaxing another spray of blood into the tight corridor. This was too easy; Sev was slightly surprised to hear himself wanting a tougher challenge. But that was just him, maybe he wanted to face something that would bring him down. End his suffering so to speak.

_I don't need to fantasize_

_You are my pet_

_For all my time_

_I don't mind if_

_You go blind_

_You get what you get_

_Until you're through with my life_

As Sev kicked down the door to a storage room he found the challenge he was looking for. A Hunter Killer robot, it was a tall, spindly machine with a small head that had one huge iris and five small ones and a set of six spindly arms. On each arm was a different implement of death, ranging from a buzz saw, spikes, a small machine gun, sharp hands and blades. A pair of clawed feet completed the picture.

"Die mercenary" it said in an electronic growl

"Not in your shelf-life" Sev snarled and ran, this was to big for him. The Hunter Killer had six weapons, he had two and it wouyld have durasteel armour. He had meshsteel in his jacket and trousers so they were bulletproof but that was about it. That wouldn't stand up to the whirling blades of the Hunter Killer. As Sev ran he hit a set of stairs and glanced at a sign as it rushed past him. It told him he was approaching the maintenance catwalks, The song changed pace

_Now I've tol you this once before_

_You can't control me_

_If you try to take me down your gonna fail_

_I feel your every nothing that you rdoing for_

_I'm picking you outta me_

Sev skidded to a halt and summoned a D-12 charge from his S.A.C then placed it with a tripwire in a small recess in the wall. He continued running.

_I stand alone_

_Inside_

_I stand alone_

_Inside_

_I stand alone_

_Inside_

There was a deafening explosion behind Sev, he spun around and his long hair clouded his vision for half a second. Sev sprinted through the door and came out on a catwalk at least 20 metres above the hangar. A huge shipping crate hung by a steel rope above him. The Hunter Killer crashed into the wall, completely unharmed.

_You're always hiding behind your so-called Goddess_

_So what that you don't think we can't see your face_

_Resurrected back before the final fallen_

_I'll never rest until I can make my own way_

_I'm not afraid of fading_

"Give up Mercenary" The Hunter Killer's robotic voice grated out.

_I stand alone_

_Feeling your sting down inside of me_

_I'm not dying for_

_I stand alone_

_Everything that I believe is fading_

_I stand alone_

"Not in your lifetime" Sev snarled back, he ran and leapt up onto the crate. He clambered along it to the rope and raised his sword. With one hand on the hook Sev swung his sword and sliced through the rope. The crate fell instantly, crashing through the catwalk and gathering speed as it plummeted to the hangar floor 20 metres below...  
_  
Inside_

The Crate rapidly hit terminal velocity with Sev trailing behind it I near free-fall with one hand on the severed rope. As the crate neared the floor Sev pulled himself down onto it in a low crouch, he calculated he had ten seconds.

Nine.

Eight.

Sev tensed his legs and prepared to jump

Six.

Five.

He saw a suitably soft landing spot: a pile of bags filled with something soft.

Three.

Two.

He leapt forward, soaring through the air.

One.

The crate slammed down behind him, its floor buckled instantly and the shock ripped the walls apart. The doors fell off and the roof caved in. Sev still hit the pile of bags with enormous force, enough to give him a serious headache and a dislocated shoulder. His sword went flying and Sev rolled off the pile, crashing onto the floor. He lay there in a daze for a moment then leapt up and began searching for his sword. As Sev walked he took a hold of his shoulder, gritted his teeth and wrenched it back into position. IT hurt like hell, even for a Furion but in that brief flash of pain someone called out to him.

"_Sev!"_

"Jade!" Sev shouted his voice echoed around the hangar lit only by red emergency lights. But no-one answered his call, telepathically or otherwise. A laugh echoed out of the shadows and an Alpha Section Elite stepped out, his enormous durasteel boots clanging loudly on the hangar floor. Sev spotted his sword and kept walking, keeping his eyes o the Alpha Elite.

"So we meet again Severus" The Elite said, his voice distorted into a supposedly deep, terrifying growl by the speakers in the helmet.

'_The Elite from Atlas!' _Sev realized, he had only met one elite before and this must be him. "You survived before, you won't this time" Sev said in a low, animalistic voice. He knew how to intimidate others simply through speech as well. He reached his sword, kicked it into the air and snatched the hilt out of midair.

"You really think your little stick is going to help you against my durasteel armour?" The Elite asked in an extremely amused voice.

"You better believe it, I'd give you a quick and painless death but it's just not in my nature" Sev smiled like a predator scenting its prey. He sprinted forward and used a new trick he had learned just a year ago. The Elite swung, Sev dodged and the hammer smashed into the ground putting a huge crater in the titanium-tungsten floor. Sev ran up the Elite's arm and leapt over his head, delivering a powerful slice across the unarmoured neck of the Elite. As he came down the other side he sliced the Elite's gas tank off, spewing the noxious green contents across the battlefield. The Elite stumbled around, his choking and spluttering audible through the speakers, Sev stepped into the Elite's way, reversed his sword and stabbed up under the Elite's chest plate. It worked, his sword slotted into the tiny gap between the chest and belly armour and coaxed spray of red-green blood from the Elite. Sev twisted the blade, bringing more blood from the wound. As the Alpha came down like a ton of bricks Sev did a series of back flips and made a run for his new ship. The _Daggermouth _was a small ship about the size of a Commonwealth gunship. It highly resembled a dragon with a dragon head like cockpit and plates of overlapping armour covering its body, long wings were mounted on either side of a luster of a dozen engine tubes. On main tube with a smaller one underneath it, three on either side above it and two below in a pentagon like configuration. Long tube mounted on the flanks between the sections of mobile scale armour as Sev called it sucked in hydrogen in space and anything else it found to use in its fuel mixture. Sev sprinted up the ramp and flung himself into the fighter style cockpit. He powered the ship up and charged the Molecular Laser hanging under the ship in its long, needle-like casing. The _Daggermouth_ lifted off slightly, hovering just a metre above the floor as Sev retracted the landing gear and fired the Molecular Laser. The thin purple beam blew the hangar doors open and everything was sucked out into space. At the same moment the engines ignited and the _Daggermouth _soared into space. As Sev calculated a vector back to System 4 he was sure he saw an object that looked just like a Hunter Killer robot sucked out of the hangar and into the vacuum. He lingered at the station only long enough to fire the Molecular Laser through the pirate cruiser's engines; it would be a slow, painful death for those trapped aboard…

SYSTEM 4-Sahara-Sardis March -6/4/2437

It had taken all of eight days to fly half way across the galaxy back to a place Sev had never wanted to return to. As the _Daggermouth _had touched down Sev had been bombarded with memories. He looked through the doorway of a bar and remembered how, song long ago he and Jade had sat together in the Akuda Bar, just talking.

"_Thanks for coming to the rescue Sev"_

That was what jade had said to him, quite casually as they had lifted off in _Icarus _and headed to Atlas. That was what had kicked it all off, he had saved her life and she had such a casual attitude about it. Sev almost smiled at that memory, and would have had it not brought up such pain that he felt his inside being torn apart all over again. He had managed to avoid thinking about Jade for two years. Now back in her home system, memories of her tortured Sev everywhere he went.

"Severus pay attention!"

The voice craclked harshly in Sev's earpiece, bringing him sharply back to reality. He was on watch for the Ashton's convoy, a procession of three massive land crawlers. Land Crawlers were immense, wheeled vehicles shaped like half a pistol bullet split lengthways, exact dimensions as far as Sev could recall them were about 30 metres long, 12 wide and about the height of a five story building. He had memorized the land crawler's layout already and spent most of his time exploring its grimy, oily bowls. He really didn't really care if the land crawler got attacked; the armoured hull was made of starship quality neosteel and there were dozens of armed guards inside anyway. "How much further?" Sev asked.

"We're here"

Sev looked up at the massive dark green temple, it was vaguely pyramid shaped with countless spires, balconies and small structures built onto it. But one balcony interested Sev; he drew out his binoculars and zoomed in on it. There was a figure there dressed in a beautiful white gown with short black hair. He knew it was impossible but as the land crawlers shuddered to a stop Sev leapt onto a nearby pillar and began jumping his way towards the pyramid. He hit a flat, rectangular structure and began running up the slope. It was possible but difficult and he struggled to keep his footing. Sev had to rest several times one the way up it was so difficult and so tiring. He leapt onto a pillar and checked the balcony again; she was gone. He sprung across three pillars and finally reached the balcony. Inside was a sumptuously decorated room fit for a queen. Sev didn't quite follow but didn't care anyway. He crashed through the wooden door and sprinted down the hallway, following the occasional glimpses of white gown. Whoever it was ducked into a small room Sev followed but a metal door slammed shut on him, a split second later another one behind him also slammed shut, trapping him. "I don't have time for this!" Sev roared in the tiny space, lit by a sole light above the door, the far end of the room and its walls were hidden in shadow.

"So sorry to keep you waiting, we are done" A voice echoed through the room, its source unseen. The doors rumbled open and Sev burst through to find the most amazing sight of his life. Jade stood before him in a white gown, he hair still an untidy shock of black held up with a green headband. Her green eyes showed just as much shock as Sev felt.

"Who the hell are you?" Jade snapped, quick as lightning she snatched a Dai-jo staff off a table Sev assumed must be behind her.

"Don't remember me?" Sev asked.

"I remember someone who looked like you" jade ignited the ends of the staff ad hidden emitters extended scythe like energy blades from the ends of the staff.

"Do you have a gold ring with a cross shape of emeralds set into it?" Sev asked.

"What's it to you?" jade said shortly.

'_That means yes' _Sev knew, he slowly drew the ring off his finger, it had the same pattern it emeralds on it, the centrepiece of his family crest. He threw it to Jade, who caught it deftly and examined it. "Miss me?" Sev asked dryly as Jade began to shake. Sev was beyond words but wasn't about to give in, he showed absolutely no reaction _'Is this the price I paid, my humanity? I should be shaking as well. What have I lost that I can't show any humanity now?"_ Sev took a step forward as Jade sprang at him.

"Liar!" She yelled and swung the staff, its deadly blades shimmering in the dark room.

Sev drew his sword more out of instant reaction than anything else and held his blade flat against the swing. He blocked it effortlessly, Jade was an incredible fighter but Sev was better, he had been trained to fight his whole life, and he was a Furion, his DNA gave him faster reflexes than Jade. Jade sprung back and her eyes glowed green, in a lighting fast pounce she crashed the tip of her staff into Sev's chest, throwing him against the wall. Sev had a sudden idea, if objects couldn't jog her memory, maybe words could. As Jade swung back to finish him Sev spoke "Its me Jade, its Sev. If you don't believe me kill me now" with that he bowed his head. He heard the air swish as the blade came down. Expected the searing pain, but it never came. All that he felt was heat from the energy blade held just an inch from his neck. He looked up, jade stood there, staff in hand, eyes stung with tears.

"Sev" jade, said quietly, she deactivated the blades lest she decapitate Sev accidentally. It had been known to happen with bladestaffs. Sev stood up rubbing his head; he towered over Jade, twice her size. He could kill her now if he so chose, but he didn't, Sev simply put his arms around Jade the moment she fell against him. She felt Sev rest his head in her shock of messy black hair.

"I thought you were dead," He whispered, for the first time ever he allowed his voice to show some part of the fear he lived with. "No hard feelings about trying to kill me okay" Sev said in a mock reassuring voice.

"Yeah sorry about that, I thought you were some thug trying to break in" Jade replied impishly.

Sev stepped back from Jade, trying to sound insulted but the first smile he had worm since the death of Furia ruined the affect "A thug? You thought I was a thug!"

"Well you look like one" Jade said in the same impish tone.

"I'll have you know I am a…" Sev never got to finish his defense because at that moment jade leapt forward and kissed him. After about half a minute she stepped back.

"You were saying?" asked as if nothing had happened. Sev was looking somewhat surprised understandably. A loud boom interrupted the moment. "We gotta go" jade said, instantly serious "Get your stuff, here's you ring"

Sev snatched up his sword and slipped the ring back on his finger. Jade seized his hand. The boom became a constant rumble

"Follow me!" she shouted over the noise "We'll head out to the balcony we have to get to the top of the pyramid and find Etheria!" Jade ran, leading Sev by his hand.

"Friend of yours?" Sev shouted.

"You could say that" Jade replied. They rushed back the way Sev came, the rumbling all the while becoming louder and louder. As they reached the balcony Jade whistled loudly, a high-pitched note that Sev heard even over the rumbling around them.

"I don't think your pet dog heard you" Sev shouted, either because she couldn't hear him or because she wasn't listening Jade ignored him. What Sev saw next was simply amazing. An immense dragon like creature appeared from below the balcony. It had smooth scales and webbed feet with a blunt, rounded snout surrounded by hard spiky carapace. What amazed Sev most of all was that the creature landed on the railing, balancing perfectly and allowing Jade to clamber up a brown leather harness the dragon wore. Sev followed and came out on the dragon's wide, pale green back. Jade was already strapped into a seat and Sev found a seat behind and to the left. It looked like a passenger set up. Pilot's seat at the front and four behind it Sev quickly found the straps and the dragon took off at Jade's command. The flew to the very top of the pyramid and Jade ordered the dragon to land on a platform that was cut into the face of the pyramid. The two disembarked and Sev saw a woman standing before them. She had extremely long brown hair that hung in sheets down to her belly, pale skin and blue eyes. She was dressed in an ornate white gown under a brown habit.

"Etheria let's go!" Jade shouted.

"I'm coming my child!" Etheria shouted back, she struggling under the weight of a huge, lumpy bag.

Sev raced forward and took the bag "I'll carry it" he said, hefting the bag onto his shoulder with ease. The trio climbed onto Jade's dragon and the huge creature soared out into the sunlight as the rumbling stopped, giving way to an ominous, prefect silence.

Jade looked over her shoulder at the temple and the three land crawlers parked at the base, tiny black dots were swarming around them, the occupants trying desperately to get back in as the three massive vehicles started up and began to move in reverse. "They're too late, they'll never make it out in time" Jade said to herself.

Sev's highly acute hearing picked up something about 'being to late' but the wind whistling by as the dragon soared high meant that was all he heard. A trickle of warning slithered through him; Sev looked around and saw an ominous cluster of black shapes, skiffs painted in matte black of the Alpha Sections. The two-part skull and lightning bolt logo only confirmed it. The skiff was little more than a flying platform capable of rising up to thirty or so metres above the Earth's surface. The platform was about five metres long with a raised section at the back and a cluster of jets under the nose and at the tail. Railings around the side allowed the occupants to attach safety lines and a large Dryson MHK-50 Light Anti Tank Gauss weapon was mounted on the bow of each one. A secondary Morita Arm-5 LAW Gauss gun was mounted at the stern just behind the helm. _"We'll never out fly them and we can't out shoot them' _Sev realized instantly. "Jade bring us closer to those skiffs!" he roared over the wind.

Jade pulled the dragon to a halt "Are you crazy! They've got Gauss cannons!"

"That's why we have to fight them on the skiff, we'll never out fly those things!" Sev said he knew he had the stronger argument. At that moment two of the skiffs exploded in a pair of blinding white blasts. Through the explosion came a trio of very familiar ships, a MiG-240 Arctic Wolf, an F-490 StarHawk and a BF-4200 Thunderhead II. Sev's mind placed the pilots: Wilco, Raven, Thunderpants, so they weren't dead.

"Looks like you could use a hand or three!" Thunderpants commented on his ship speakers.

"Right you are, go to GenNet channel 0567017" Sev replied, they could use the channel to communicate, it was one of the many secure lines available for sale on the black market.

"All right, I'm here" Thunderpants' voice crackled through Sev's earpiece.

"Channel locked in" Raven added.

"Channel is confirmed" Wilco added a split second later.

"So how did you lot come back from the dead?" Sev asked into the microphone on his earpiece.

"We were never dead, the names on that list weren't half accurate, they only got about a dozen people. It was a straight attack at you Sev" Raven informed Sev.

"Jade why aren't we moving!" Sev shouted.

"While you were at your friends reunion I maneuvered in underneath the skiffs, incase you haven't noticed we're about to catch fire!" Jade shouted back she was right. Sev hadn't been paying attention to where they were going.

"Right" Sev muttered he didn't like being proven wrong. To cover up his embarrassment and to just plain show off he unbuckled himself from the harness, stood on he dragon's back and leapt up at the skiff. Sailing over the railing Sev drew his sword and cut down the first Alpha he saw with a slice across the chest. His sword cut easily through the armour of the next three spilling their green tinged blood on the skiff's deck. It didn't take the Alphas on the other skiff long to realize something was up and Sev came under a hail of gun and laser fire. HE ducked behind another Alpha and let the soldier take the barrage of bullets and laser bolts. Sev ducked behind another Alpha, who suffered the same fate as the first. The next second the skiff was rocked by a bright green explosion throwing Sev to the deck and sending him sliding over the edge, he managed to grab onto a small rail around the flank. Sev swung him self up with a powerful flip and landed on the deck again. This time he was ready and when the cannon on the other skiff fired he recognized the massive atom shaped projectile _'A Neutralizing Cannon! Frag!' _ The Neutralizing Cannon fired an atom shaped projectile that homed in on the taret's magnetic signatures, making it able to 'lock on' to metal and biotechnological targets like large DomZ monsters. The bolt slammed under the bow of the skiff, destroying its forward engines and causing the bow to fall sharply. Three Alphas weren't fast enough and fell off the front while the other two grabbed onto footholds on the deck Sev was pinned against the higher section, safe from the gunfire but trapped by the two Alphas crawling up the deck. As the first one drew closer Sev let go of his foothold and slid towards the Alpha, foot out. The kick knocked the Alpha back into his companion and both slid down the deck and fell. By this time the other skiff had circled Sev's and the Morita ARM-5 fired. The Gauss round blew a hole through the entire skiff just below Sev's dangling feet. The Morita fired again and punched another dozen holes through the skiff; the crippled hover platform eventually lost the will to live and its rear engines, until now just barely holding the skiff in the air shut down. The ten-ton hover platform fell like a brick taking Sev with it. Sev pushed against the skiff's now vertical deck and launched himself at the other skiff…

…And missed completely, he plummeted through the air gathering speed _'A Furion making a mistake of distance judging, well now I've seen everything. Jade, I guess the old saying is true tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all' _As Sev fell he saw the skiff coming down to finish him off. Like this they couldn't miss, his body would hit the ground riddled with bullets. Sev gathered speed as he fell towards certain death; he put his arms out in a futile attempt to slow his fall to a survivable speed. Suddenly he felt his fall brought to a sudden and jarring halt, there was pressure on his wrist. Sev looked up, Jade was hanging from a strap on the dragon's leather harness, her feet hooked into it. Sev quickly grabbed onto the harness as Jade had obviously hurt herself catching him. Jade climbed back up with Sev and nursed her arm. "You hurt?" Sev asked.

"Just pulled a muscle or two," Jade replied. IT hurt be she had pulled plenty of muscles before, it would be fine in a couple of days. "I'm coming with you this time, just to make sure you don't screw up again," Jade said, drawing her battlestaff.

"I don't make mistakes" Sev said shortly.

"Then what was that just then?" Jade teased. "Secundo, we need your help"

'"What can I do mia bella?" Secundo asked as the holographic avatar appeared. Secudo appeared as usual with short grey hair, a gray goatee, red sleeveless shirt with blue jeans and trainers.

"Keep Elora here Secundo, I've told you how to fly her"

"No problemo senorita!" Secundo said in a confident Spanish voice. The holographic Spaniard piloted the dragon close under the other skiff, dodging gunfire as he did so.

"You ready?" Sev asked, he drew his other sword, a straight bladed medium length weapon.

"I'm fine let's go" jade said shortly, she felt like Sev was asking if she was capable of doing this. She was tougher than Sev thought _'I'm no damsel who needs protecting boy.'_

"_I never said that" _Sev's voice floated through Jade's mind, their telepathic link was still strong. "I've got an idea" Sev took hold of Jade's arm and without warning leapt up and over the skiff's railing. They hit the deck and Sev covered jade while she drew her battlestaff and powered up the blades. He leapt forward and stabbed the first Alpha, using him as a springboard to leap over the next and slice the unfortunate soldier's gas tank off.

Behind him Jade sliced through an Alpha's armour, reversed her grip and buried the blade into a second soldier. She ducked a burst of gunfire from two SMG armed Alphas and kicked one over the edge, using her momentum Jade buried her battlestaff's blade into the other Alpha.

Sev cut down a pair of Alphas in two split seconds and found the commander, cowering behind a shaking laser pistol. Sev kicked the weapon out of his hands and hauled the unarmoured officer to his feet. He was about five six, a few inches shorter than jade with short black hair, brown eyes and a matte-black Alpha Section's uniform with numerous medals, epaulettes showing he was a Lieutenant and a badge reading Richardson. "Well Richardson, at the risk of sounding clichéd this can be painless or it can be painful, it's your choice."

"Screw you punk!" Richardson snapped. It earned him a right hook that sent him crashing against the railing.

"What did I say?" Sev asked calmly, dragging Richardson to his feet again. "Now tell me, who sent you, why are you here and were are you based?"

"I'll not tell you anything" This time Sev gave Richardson an uppercut, as Richardson was lying on the deck Sev rasied his sword. "All right I'll tell you, I'll tell you!" Richardson whimpered.

"What's he got to say?" Jade appeared on the behind Sev, having finished looking for survivors.

"You were saying?" Sev said to Richardson.

"Some DomZ rep, called itself Marshtolvan, it ordered our CO Caldwell to send us out here. We were to capture the woman, Etheria they said." Richardson blurted out quickly.

"Thank you for your co-operation" Sev said in the same flat tone those Alpha robots used. He raised his sword to finish the job.

"No!" jade yelled, she threw herself in front of Sev as he swung. The blade made contact with her shoulder but stopped instantly.

"We can't leave him alive" Sev said coldly.

"Safe and sound in its shell the precious pearl is the slave of the currents" Richardson hissed.

Sev's eyebrows disappeared into the hair hanging over his face. He brushed it away "Who is your contact at IRIS, we need to get to the nearest base."

"Die terrorist" Richardson snarled, his hand dove into a pocket and whipped out a small canister, a thermite detonator.

"Oh frag!" Sev grabbed Jade and dived off the skiff, the crashed onto the dragon's back.

"Go Secundo go!" Jade shouted. Without asking Secundo jammed his holographic fingers into the dragon's exposed nerves. Elora shot forward as Sev and Jade rapidly strapped themselves in. "How much time do we have?" jade shouted over the wind.

Sev was about to answer when Etheria cut in "none". At that moment the whole world turned bright, blinding white and the world around Sev ceased to exist but for whiteness…


	12. Rise Again Intro

Rise Again

"Rise Mardius, your time has come.

Rise Mardius, vengeance is upon you.

Rise Mardius, your soul is tortured.

Rise Mardius, I command you"-Doran Gray, attempting an ancient resurrectio ritual on fallen warrior Mardius Gravious.


	13. Rise Again

"_Sev! Sev! Can you here me? Wake up!"_

…_I open my eyes, I am standing in a cube shaped room with no doors or windows, and the walls are constantly moving with strange patterns._

"_My brother, you have arrived"_

_I spin around and find myself face to face with a figure who for some strange reason I recognize as myself. But he does not look anything like me, his skin is black like charcoal and his eyes glow an evil green. "Who the hell are you!" I demand._

"_Why, I am you" the ghoul replies using my exact voice._

"_Last time I looked I wasn't that ugly" I reply. The ghoul laughs like some kind of predator taunting its prey before finishing it._

"_Why so stubborn Sev? If you weren't this would be so much easier, and so much less painful for you" The ghoul is all business now._

"_What do you want?" I ask shortly, I am preparing my attack; if this creature truly is me he will know all my tricks, all my moves. I decide to return to the basics._

"_Shauni, bring me Shauni and kill her host"_

"_What are you talking about you freak?" I ask, trying to distract this horrific mirror of myself._

"_Ask her about Shauni, the pretty one. Ahh what was her name, Jade that was it, yes she is a pretty one" The ghoul taunts me._

_That's it, my hand shoots to the hilt of my sword and I swing down from the sheath. My doppelganger does exatly the same and our identical swords clang in a shower of sparks. The sound echoes around the room. The doppelganger effortlessly pushes me back and I crash to the floor against a stone alter that wasn't there before. There is a body on it, Jade lies peacefully in a white an green gown with her arms folded across her chest, eyes closed. A deep sword wound I recognize mars her appearance. The wound is exactly the effect my sword has. "You bastard!" I roar._

"_Yes I did this, but I am you, which means you did this" my doppelganger laughs as he blocks my furious diagonal swipe and grabs onto my hand. He twists my hand until I hear the bones snap, as my sword is slowly re-directed. My doppelganger has twisted my hand around until my own sword is pointing back at my chest. He pushes and the razor sharp blade enters through my chest. It is the worst pain I have ever felt, the blade cuts its way through my body and pushes out through my back, blood, my blood dripping from its length._

"_Sev! Can you hear me, its Jade, come back now, this is not your world, follow me." Jade's voice floats through the room._

_I feel new strength, just as my doppelganger moves to twist the blade I kick it I the stomach, sending the creature flying backwards. I pull my sword from my body, nearly collapsing to the renewed searing pain. I run to Jade, in her white and green gown as she turns and enters a black archway, I follow, running headlong into the darkness… _

…When Sev woke up he was still staring at whiteness, but he felt warm and comfortable. He looked around through unfocused eyes as the blurry shapes around him began to become more defined. He was in a hospital, lying down o a bed surrounded by several people and a couple of basic life sign monitors for every day use. They showed his heartbeat, brainwaves, EKG and about a dozen other facts concerning his health, all showed he was fine.

"Ah you're awake" A scrawny Taurus Sapiens clad in a white lab coat and scrubs said in a surly Russian accent. "You've been out for a week or so I'm told."

"A shrah! hila ni cri?" Sev said, it was Furion 'A week! Are you sure?'

"Excuse me?" The doctor said, his name badge said he was Dr. Krysnl G.D (general Doctor).

"Speak Trade Standard Sev not everyone understand Furion" another voice said, this one with a different but still very European accent. Sev looked around, jade was in her usual clothes the white tank top, green jacket and trousers plus what looked like a brand new headband holding back her short hair. She was leaning against one of the monitoring machines, obviously trying to relax. The other around him were a nurse, Wilco, Thunderpants and Hub.

"What is this a welcome party?" Sev asked dryly.

"Yeah a welcome back to the land of the living party" Thunderpants got out before he was interrupted.

"Shutup Pants, what happened Sev?" Wilco, the dark skinned fighter squadron leader asked.

"How the hell should I know I've been unconscious for a week" Sev said.

"I can fill that part in," Jade said louder than usual to stop an argument breaking out. "The self destruct sequence at that temple was activated to prevent those Ashtons from finding anything inside. That bag Etheria was carrying held as much of the important knowledge kept there as could be carried. We were planning to leave soon, just not that soon. The temple is little more than a pile of dust at the centre of a highly radioactive zone."

"So where do I come into all of this?"

'I'll tell you in private" Jade said to Sev then to the gathered crowd "Out!"

As soon as the disgruntled crowd had left and jade had closed the curtains she continued "They were planning to move because hey knew you were coming. Shauni wouldn't allow you to find me"

"Shauni?" This was getting strange, _'She said it was nothing, clearly it isn't' _Sev thought.

"Shauni is a being of pure energy who chose me as her carrier when she fled from the DomZ. It happened before I can remember but I've always been different, I can produce a shockwave of pure energy just by focusing on it. I don't have any nanite implants or anything technological that allows me to do it. Its Shauni giving me that power, without her I'd just be an ordinary human. But when the _Beluga _was destroyed Shauni survived, she took me with her, I had been her most successful carrier in centuries. Now we are two separate bodies, Shauni has her own physical body now and she doesn't need a carrier. But something happened while I was her carrier, we forged a link and now I can feel her presence and her thoughts. I think I may have absorbed some of her power while I was her carrier" Sev listened in silence; he had know from the moment he saw jade that she was different somehow. She had some inner fire and energy, which was what had made him fall in love with her in the first place. But this, Shauni? It was all too strange for Sev, he was a soldier, used to believing only in what he could see, touch and kill.

"I think I had some control over Shauni, she told me that I was here most powerful host, that even on my own I had superhuman abilities. Maybe sometimes I was able to take Shauni's powers and use them myself. I don't know, none of it makes much sense to me" Jade hung her head, showing just how tired she really was.

"How long has it been since you got some sleep?" Sev asked, concern leaking into his voice.

"About half a week" jade said in an offhand voice, the effect was slightly ruined by a huge yawn.

"Where are my clothes and equipment?" Sev asked.

"Check the locker" Jade answered tiredly.

Sev found the locker and pulled it out, inside were his clothes, cleaned as well as his equipment and weapons. Jade left quickly as Sev pulled on his clothes and clipped his belt and sheath back on. He walked out to find Jade and Doctor Krysnl telling the various members of the crowd that he would be fine "I'm not dead yet" Sev growled.

"We thought you were, you look good" Pants said cheerfully, it wasn't clear whether it was 'you look good for a dead guy' or not.

"Either way I've signed your discharge papers, you're free to go" The moment was ruined by a distant series of cracks, sounding like gunfire. The cracking came again, much closer to the hospital, "What, they're attacking again!" Dr. Krysnl shouted.

"Who's they doc?" Sev asked.

"Terrorists who still support the Alpha Sections" Krysnl spat in disgust while Sev arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"I though the Alpha Sections were still in power" Jade said in surprise.

"They were until you were murdered ma'am" Noting Sev still looking suspicious Krysnl continued "When Jade here was killed by the Alpha Sections the population rose up one again and in one night we drove the Alpha Sections off our planet, we killed hundreds of them." He added viciously.

"Nice, now they're really pissed, good idea" Sev commented deadpan.

"We have our freedom!" Krysnl snapped.

"Let's go meet them," Sev growled, drawing his long, katana-like sword. It was then that he noticed several things that had escaped his attention before, he had new clothes, a new green jacket and short sleeve black shirt, his trousers had survived though. He looked quizzically at Jade.

"Oh come on your old gear was falling apart, so I bought you some new clothes and I don't know when your birthday is but…" Jade summoned something from her S.A.C. it was a brand new, chrome plated 2430 Desert Eagle SE, bright and gleaming with a snakeskin holster.

"What can I say, thanks Jade" Sev said, stunned, he couldn't recall the last time he had been given something which didn't have some kind of bomb hidden in it. The gun must have cost a fortune; Desert Eagles weren't cheap plus the chrome plating and snakeskin holster. Jade must have put a pretty penny into buying it.

"Don't ask how much it cost," Jade said simply. That answered Sev's question, the answer being: a lot.

OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL

It seemed that the Alpha Section supporters just wanted to make a scene, a grand 'up yours' to the galaxy. It wasn't long before a local garrison set up a mounted machine gun and cut the crowd of gun toting fanatics as they marched on the hospital. Just a few minutes and the whole scene was over, not long after that people began to come out of their hiding places, it seemed that this sort of thing was not uncommon. People were used it crowds of fanatics being shot up by now _'Strange what people can get used too' _Sev mused to himself.

Jade looked at the thirty or so bullet riddled bodies once before walking away, looking somewhat shaken by the whole event. "You alright Jade?" Sev asked once he caught up with her.

"I'm fine, I just never thought I'd see Hillyans dieing for the Alphas, after what they did to us, maybe some people think I was right. I don't know, I just want to see my family again" Even Jade herself was surprised by the torrent of emotion _'I can't be weak, not in front of Sev, or anyone' _Jade shook her head and when she looked up again any trace of shakiness was gone "I'm fine Sev!" She snapped when she saw Sev was still watching her. "Look lets get a taxi home"

"Home? Jade may I remind I don't have a home" Sev said quietly, so other people on the street wouldn't hear the slightly sad tone. He almost felt okay in confiding in jade but not anyone else, he was a mercenary after all.

"You can come to our home" Jade said instantly, Sev might put up the façade of a cold, tough mercenary but to her he was just someone who just as human as the rest of the world.

"I'd like that" Sev said, still in a quiet voice…

LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND

The small yellow taxi touched down outside the lighthouse and its two occupants jumped out, one paused to pay the driver while the other ran inside. Sev glanced inside the doorway of the twice-rebuilt lighthouse at the shouts coming from the doorway; he followed them inside to find Jade on the floor under a pile of children and a massive white dog. Everyone was shouting and the dog was giving of deafening barks. Jade managed to stand up, spilling kids in every direction; she spotted Pey'j, just standing there as if to overcome to actually do anything. She leapt into her uncle's arms, laughing and crying at the same time, Sev stood in the door looking out of place.

Pey'j put Jade down and saw Sev in the door "Well two years is long enough, I suppose I could bury the hatchet" He said in his usual gravelly American accent.

"Now Pey'j, Sev saved my life, without him I would have been killed" jade chided.

"You would've…"

"Pey'j" jade said, a slight warning tone in her voice, Pey'j backed off straight away, like any man, he wasn't game to pick a fight with Jade.

Sev noticed something new; a shiny MDisk player sat in the corner of what appeared to be a living room. Carpeted floor, fireplace and a radio, plus the shiny Mdisk player that suddenly started beeping, accompanied by a small hologram appearing depicting an Earth 21st Century telephone.

"Pey'j when did you get that?" jade asked, crossing over to the beeping player.

"When the people of Hillys helped rebuild the lighthouse they gave us this" Pey'j waddled over to join Jade and hit a button.

The Hillyan governor's face appeared on the screen "Pey'j thank heavens I…My goodness Jade! I heard of someone of your likeness landing in the spaceport but is it really you?" The governor appeared understandably flustered, the people's dead heroine, alive.

"Yes governor it's me, what do you need?"

"Well I was going to ask Pey'j if he could find someone but, you don't need to hear my problems. I need someone to locate and destroy a shipment of weapons that some benefactor is bringing to Hillys to support these terrorists' the governor explained.

"What do they have at the moment, weapon-wise?" Sev cut in.

"Mostly small arms, assault rifle and machine guns, some rocket launchers and RPGs. My sources tell me that this shipment, along with small arms carries a supply of plasma weapons. With them the terrorists will be able to cause untold destruction. They hold all Hillyans responsible for the defeat of the Alpha Sections" The governor was still looking flustered and tired, Sev saw immediately that the terrorist attacks were no the small time activity that everyone seemed to want to believe it was.

"I'll do it" Sev said immediately.

"Sev…" jade started to make an argument but was cut off.

"Jade you just got back to your family, spend some time here, a pack of cargo shippers will be no match for a Furion Swordmaster" Sev said reassuringly "Relax, catch up with everyone, I'll be fine"

"Governor?"

"Yes Sev, what can I get you?"

"Some Pyrite explosives and nine beef flavour dinners-to-go…"


	14. New Edge Intro

NEW EDGE

"A Furion Sword Forge is a marvelous machine, using just a tiny amount of minerals and a tribute of the prospective wielder's blood, it can create an utterly unique weapon. This weapon is perfectly balanced for the user, the Forge using the DNA gained from the tribute of blood to determine the perfect weapon. Though swords, especially Katana are the most common, spears and halberds are also formed. Only those that are from a noble family are granted access to the Forge, although there are exceptions to be found in Furia's Great Library history files. …It is a demonstration of the Furion obsession with fine, bladed weapons; they would never use something so crude as a hammer, as some cultures do. Truly a magnificent device and no doubt partly responsible for the grace and deadliness that Furion warriors show on the field"-Historian Lorhkans Tylor in his 1000 page study of the Furions, _The People of Furia: Two years spent amongst a warrior people._

"I watched a Furion Swordmaster and his pupil spar today, their grace was amazing. They are like modern-day Samurai, leaping and twirling, spinning and slashing in a fighting style that seems less like a battle, but more like a graceful ballet performed by the most artful of dancers."-Historian Lorhkans Tylor in his 1000 page study of the Furions, _The people of Furia: Two years spent amongst a warrior people._


	15. New Edge

KARNAK TRADE LANE-Altitude: five thousand kilometres-12/4/2437

Sev sat in _Daggermouth's _pilot couch, scanning the Karnak Trade Lane for his target, just yesterday he had found out from one of the governor's contacts that the weapon shipment would be coming in using this high altitude lane. He glanced over at the photos stuck on the bulkhead just above one of his ships' readouts, it was a cluster of photos and maps showing the sky train itself, various ports it was stopping in and a map showing its flight path. According to what he had found out the train would be passing his location fairly soon. I just a few minutes to be preci…There it was! The long, ponderous bulk of the sky train burst through the clouds, a boxy train, little more than a set of huge engines with a bridge somewhere on top trailing a long series of boxes held together by steel cables. Sev made his move, he cloaked his ship and moved in, the gunboat left nothing but a ripple in the sky as it moved. Sev leveled the gunboat alongside the sky train and remotely opened a side hatch. He walked to the hatch and leapt across the gap toward the waiting sky train, the wind blowing him well off mark and he landed fifty metres back from where he was aiming. Sev drew his katana and rammed it into the sky train's hull, the Etherium edge easily sliced through the thick durasteel…

SKY TRAIN BRIDGE

…"Hull breach!" a crew member shouted.

"Where?" The captain snapped.

"Near a store room!"

"Seal it now, we can't loose our cargo!"

"On it, dispatching repair teams to sector 551A"

"Right, tell them to report back on what they find"

"Yessir"

SECTOR 551A-STORE ROOM

Six overall wearing men examined the hole in this side of the sky train. It was triangular in shape, there was something suspicious about it, the shape was to regular to be an accident. Team captain Grenn spoke ito his comm. "Sir we've found the breach, it looks like something on the hull cut through, I think we have an intruder"

"Alright, be careful, we're dispatching search teams. Seal that hole" came the reply.

"Yessir, we'll have this fixed in a jiffy" Grenn looked at the hole "Get a large patch over that boys", the team sprung to work, pulling out the hull patch and holding it in place while two other members of the team welded it in place. It was a fairly makeshift repair, but it would hold until they could fix the hull properly at the next stop. Unfortunately that next stop was not to be, courtesy of one Severus Angelo Caravera, who had sliced through the hull and was busily sabotaging the sky trains massive reactor…

SKY RAIN ENGINE ROOM

…Sev was surrounded by the blood-spattered corpses of the engine room's guards and crew, he had told them to get against the wall but they had attacked him instead. They never stood a chance against a single Furion, especially as he had become a SwordMaster, evidenced by the small tattoo above his left eye. Sev stood up from the control panel as a door at the far end of the engine room opened, he walked through into the reactor room, it was about three stories high, he was o the middle one. IN the center of the cylindrical room were three reactors, each a cylinder and ringed with dozens of walkways and control panels tended by servitor droids. Around the outside of the reactor room were three wide walkways, their surfaces covered in grease and oil, with pipes in the wall leaking their contents onto the grilled surfaces. It reminded Sev vaguely of the IRIS landing pad on Atlas. He quickly walked across one of the bridges that linked the outer walkways to the inner ones, when he reached a console his jaw dropped. It was not actually a console but a Furion Sword Forge, the device used by a new Furion to craft him or herself a unique weapon perfectly suited to their style of combat.

"I thought I'd find you here"

Sev spun, a dark figure with glowing eyes had appeared on the bridge, covered in a black cloak that hid all of its features, it reached up and pulled the hood back. Sev recoiled, charcoal black skin and glowing green eyes, hair identical to Sev's, even the scar over the right side of his face and the tattoos were mimicked. The dark creature threw his cloak aside and drew a sword identical to Sev's. Sev reached for his own sword, it was gone, mysteriously vanished, somehow he recognized that the sword in his mirror's hand was his own, the creature had somehow taken his sword. Sev drew a small short sword and leapt forward with a vicious swing, the short sword shattered against his own blade, several small shards burying themselves in his skin. The mirror kicked out at Sev, sending him crashing against the reactor room's wall. Now almost unarmed Sev drew his Desert Eagle and fired, each time his mirror dodged the shot.

"You are pathetic Severus, in time you will be strong enough to provide sport for me, but for now you are unworthy of dieing by my hand" Sev's mirror spat "But remember this!" it flung a knife at Sev, too fast to dodge, the blade buried itself in Sev's side. White-hot pain shot through him as Sev collapsed to the ground. "And remember this!" the creature took the blade of Sev's sword and snapped it, then tossed the two halves off the walkway. Sev tried to move, but the creature vanished as if it was never there. Sev took a hold of the knife's hilt and pulled it out, snarling with the pain. He flung the knife away. Sev stood and walked back to the Sword Forge, his hand clamped over the bleeding wound. At the Forge, Sev looked over it _'Well a warrior without a weapon is like a starship without fuel. I suppose I have no choice' _with that Sev activated the console. The Forge flickered to life as Sev punched in the commands he remembered from when he first used them device. A small panel opened up and Sev held his bloodsoaked hand over it, his blood dripped onto the panel, which soon retreated. A long box rose from the top of the Forge as an image appeared on the console's screen. The image was of a three-foot Katana, a hilt long enough for it to be used two handed even though all Furion swords were light enough to be used with a single hand. The guard had a wolf head over the blade on the long edge. A long, thin, slightly curved blade that tapered all the way into a razor point point. There was an inscription on the blade that Sev recognized as name, the name his blood had given the sword.

_Shenroshi_

It meant _ShadowShield_, the shield of the outcast that defended the one he still loved in the cark of the night, so they would be safe but never know it was that outcast who protected them.On the pommel was a small crown surrounding a sphere. The Forge slowly created the blade; tiny particles of light were sprayed over the holographic image now in the clear box atop the Forge. When the particles reached the sword the solidified, becoming a small speck of the sword. The process to just a few minutes and when completed, the clear box opened and folded back into the Forge, leaving the sword hanging in midair. Sev took it by the reinwood hilt and held the blade up in the light to examine it. Just as it had appeared on the screen it was a Katana, though somewhat heavier than Sev's old sword he could still use it one handed. The reinwood in the hilt made it almost unbreakable while still giving it plenty of grip, the guard had the top half of a wolf's head, with its upper jaw open over the blade. A intricate pattern of glittering, gold-like metal was inlaid in the blade, surrounding the battle-prayer and extending all the way to the very tip of the blade. It was something that was reserved only for those who would become the greatest of warriors. Sev was humbled by the honour he had received with it, he had never even met another who had received a Gilded blade, as the term was. Sev put the blade in is nano-sheath and turned away, his wound was already healing and would soon be just another scar, but he would be slightly weakened for a few days until he made a full recovery. It did not take him long to find the reactor and set it to overload. By the time anyone realized what was going on he had reached the storage room he had cut through to get into the sky-train.

SECTOR 551A-STORE ROOM

The first guard never even saw it coming, a flash of silver amidst the darkness in the storeroom and he fell to the ground, a thin gash in his chest. The next guard had time to raise his Mag-12 before it was sliced in half, along with his arms, he fell to the floor as Sev sliced his head off. Sev spun and impaled the next guard, then swung again, slicing his blade out of the body and cutting a thin gash through the last guard. All to easy Sev though, just as the reactor overloaded. A deafening boom rocked the whole sky-train, a massive explosion blew out one side, throwing the several hundred-ton airship over and splitting it in half. Through the falling wreckage one dragon-like red airship rocketed to safety, piloted by one Severus Angelo Caravera…

HILLYS-Seaview-Volgograd District.

Sev put _Daggermouth_ down in a private landing bay IRIS had secured for his own personal use. As he walked down the landing ramp to meet the group of guards and reporters that apparently wanted to talk to him Sev noticed something. There was a lone, green-clad figure standing in the entrance to the landing pad. Sev shoved through the reporters 'accidentally' breaking a camera.

"_Corpse-picking vultures, I hate reporters"_ Sev thought to himself.

"_Oh really? Guess I should have know this would never have worked out"_ Jade's voice invaded Sev's complaining, she put o a hurt tone just to make Sev feel guilty.

"_All right, I hate all reporters except for one" _Sev shot back.

"_Could it be me?" _Jade asked in an amused voice.

"_Perhaps"_

"Let's ditch this lot," Jade said as Sev reached her. As the two walked off, no doubt to the sound of reporters inventing a story about the two Sev filled jade in on what happened. He left out the part about the wraith that had attacked him. As they turned down an alleyway to take a shortcut Jade threw an arm around Sev, he complied, putting his own arm around her shoulders.

"Its good to be back here, this is the first place I've felt at peace since…since Furia" Sev still found it hard to talk about the destruction of his race, but he had felt enough trust in Jade to confide in her the tale. Jade had felt tears in her eyes as he told her the story. As they turned down another alley about a dozen shadows detached themselves from the walls and surrounded them.

"Well, well, well what have we here?" The shadow became clear; it was an Alpha Section Guard.

"Looks like a couple of lovebirds out for a stroll" Another one said.

"How about we show them what traitors get" A third added.

"I like the sound of that" The first growled. As one they drew their T-Hammers. Sev stood back to back with Jade, but she was unarmed, she hadn't brought a weapon. This was the worst kind of fight, one where the fighter had to protect someone who would not be able to defend themselves. It reminded Sev of the tale of Caius and Erusha, Caius had died defending Erusha from Count Morgath and his soldiers, the story paralleled Sev's own in more ways than one. Never the less, he had to defend Jade, he drew his Katana and took up a combat stance, blade held high and level with the ground, pointing at the ringleader. He was outnumbered and at a sever disadvantage, but maybe it would buy time for Jade to escape. Sev's eyes flicked about, surveying his enemy and the battlefield, then he noticed a black figure at the end of the alleyway, a very familiar one. He lost his concentration and seeing this, the lead Alpha swung his hammer. Sev never drew himself back to the battle in time to stop the blow hitting home…


End file.
